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10  NEW  SUPER  LAPTOPS  PUT  TO  THE  TEST! 

cannpuTE 


SEPTEMBER  1991 


DOUBLE  YOUR  HARD  DISK  SPACE 

KEY  LEGAL  STRATEGIES  FOR  HOME  OFFICES 

DOS  5-COMPLETE  USE^S  GUIDE 

EXCLUSIVE!  REAL  MOTION  VIDEO  FROM  A  DISK! 


us  <i;?95niK  El  95 

I iiiiiiiiiimi  I     0  9 


0  '"71A86"02193'     3 


ZE(E386SX-20! 
Only '1195. 


INCREDIBLE  20MHZ  ZERO-WAIT  PERFORMANCE  $1195! 


That's  right!  Now  you  can  own 
the  incredible  new  ZEOS  386SX 
2OMH2  s^tem,  complete  for  only 
$1195!  Using  ultra  high  speed 
53  nanosecond  DRAM,  your  new 
ZEOS  386SX-20  delivers  blazing 
zero-wait  state  performance  with- 
out the  need  for  a  cache.  And  that's 
just  for  starters. 

Your  new  ZEOS  386SX-20  also 
includes  the  most  advanced  SX 
motherboard  available  anywhere. 
Because  we've  not  only  added  incre- 
dibly fast  53ns  DRAM,  we've  also 
int^rated  the  hand  and  floppy  drive 
controllers /?/?is  the  serial,  parallel 
and  game  ports  right  on  the  mother- 
board! This  results  in  even  greater 
reliability  and  expandability 

ZEOS  SX  SYSTEMS  RATED  #1! 

After  aU,  the  ZEOS  386SX-20 
comes  from  a  family  oi  Editor's 
Choice  '555  systems.  And  most 
recently,  in  PC  Maga2dne's  Service 
and  Refebility  issue,  ZEOS  sj^tems 
received  the  #1  SX  rating  overall. 
When  you  receive  your  new  ZEOS 
386SX  youll  see  why  ZEOS  is  #1. 
Take  our  case  and  power  supply 
for  instance. 

Your  new  system  will  indude  our 
custom  200  Watt  power  supply  and 
seven  bay  SpaceSaver  desktop  case. 

NASmo^l'£5^7'^'i°"^1S^"7fe,=?';'"T-  """Ml  «;!?=■  P[==f«  ^lUl  forc^nrat  priciHK  and  warnuily  details.  ZEOS  is  a  publicly  traded  company. 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  14S 


You  save  space  and  still  have  room 
for  lots  of  future  expandability!  And 
the  components  in  your  system  will 
last  longer  too  because  ZEOS  gives 
you  not  just  one,  but  two  cooling 
fans.  After  all,  the  cooler  your 
system  runs,  the  longer  it  will  last. 
Now  that's  uncompromising  value. 
That's  ZEOS  value. 

24  HOUR  A  DAY  TOLL  FREE  SAL£S 
AND  TECHNICAL  SUPPORT! 

Too,  you  will  receive  our  legend- 
ary ZEOS  24  Hour  a  Day  Toll  Free 
Technical  Support.  Plus  our  full  30 
Day  Absolute  Satisfaction  Money 
Back  Guarantee,  One  Full  Year 
Limited  Warranty  and  Express 
Parts  Replacement  Policy 

Performance.  Quality  Price. 
Support.  These  are  the  hallmarks 
that  have  made  ZEOS  America's 
favorite  choice.  These  are  the  values 
that  make  ZEOS  your  best  choice 
as  well.  You're  going  to  be  very 
satisfied.  We  don't  just  say  it.  We 
Guarantee  it. 

ORDER  NOW  TOLL  FREE: 
800423-5891 

Order  your  new  ZEOS  386SX 
now  with  confidence.  Your  choice 
of  ZEOS  quality  and  performance 
is  Guaranteed.  Order  now  toll  free 
by  calling  800-423-5891. 


INCREDIBLE 
20  MHz 
ZERO-WAIT 
PERFORMANCE 

ONLY  $1195 

■ '386SX-20  CPU, 

8/20MHZ. 
•  Ultra  Fast  53n5  DRAM 
providing  true  ZerO' 
Wait  state  performance. 
512K  memory  expand- 
able to  o  System  Total 
of  16MB.  RigKt  on  the 
motherboard. 

■  42MB  High  Speed  IDE 
hard  drive.  Teac ' 
1.2MB  floppy. 

■  ZEOS  14"  Hi-Res  amber 
monitor  with  Tilt/Swivel. 
Includes  Genuine 
Hercules'  brand 
graphics  controller! 

JiZEOS/RSIOIkey 
i  SpaceSaver  keyboard. 

n  Two  Serial,  one  Parallel 
&  one  Game  Port. 

a  6-16, 2-8  bit  expansion 
slots.  80387SX  math 
coprocessor  support, 
i  Rugged  ZEOS  T-bay 
SpaceSaver  case  with 
our  200  Watt  power 
supply  and  two  cooling 
fans  for  added  reliability 
and  product  life. 

■  Includes  ZEOS  24  Hour 
a  Day  Toll  Free  Technical 
Support  and  Customer 
Satisfaction  package. 

Options  Ga\oret 
Including  14  '  1024  VGA, 
more  memory,  on  in- 
credible selection  of  hard 
drives:  SCSI,  IDE,  ESDI  RLL 
or  MFM  and  virtually  any 
other  add-on  you  could 
want.  Ask  about  other 
special  money  saving 
packages  too. 

ORDER  NOW  TOLL  FREE 

800-423-5891 

FAX  Orders:  612-633-1325 
Minnesota:  612-633-4591 
Hearing  Impaired  (TOO) 

Orders:  800-228-5389 
Outside  US  and  Canada; 

612-633-6131 
MasterCard,  VISA,  Discover, 
Am  Exp,  Z-CARD  and  COD. 
Open  24  Hours  a  Day, 
365  Days  a  Year! 


VOLUME  13, 
NO.  9,  ISSUE 


33 


DDnnpuTE 


SEPTEMBER  1991 


6 

EDITORIAL  LICENSE 

By  Peter  Scisco 

Magazines,  like 

sharks,  must  move  forward. 


8 

NEWS  &  NOTES 

By  Alan  R.  Bechtold 

Court  jesters, 

sandbagged  silicon,  and 

more  news. 


14 


FEEDBACK 

Bad  sectors, 

disappearing  menus,  and 

more. 


18 

BRAIN  WAVES 

By  Sherry  Roberts 
If  you're  too  busy 

to  attend  traditional  schiool, 
tap  into  techinology 

and  give  your  brain  a  boost. 


26 

SHAREPAK 

By  Ricfiard  C.  Leinecker 

This  montfi's  disk  brings 

two  puzzles  for  gamers 

and  a  writing  coach. 


28 

BREAKING  COMMUNICATIONS 
BARRIERS 

By  Gail  Dutton 

Software  and 

hardware  combine  to  help 

aphasic  patients 
use  and  process  language. 


By  Denny  Atkin 

Get  help 

for  almost  anything  almost 

anytime 

through  your  modem. 

66 

TIPS  &  TOOLS 

Really  wild 

cards,  power  pointers, 

redirecting  DOS, 

batch  files  in  graphic  mode, 

and  more 

strategies  for  computing. 

TO 

PROGRAMMING  POWER 

By  Tom  Campbell 

Global  variables 

are  tempting,  but  they  can 

backfire  on  you. 


ArlisI  Terry  Rosen  created  Post-Modern  Still  Life  using  Lighispeed 

Design  software  on  a  Sun  Micro  workstation.  Recollections  of  a 

Cezanne  tabtetop — but  is  the  table  indoors  or  out?  Even  the 

postcard  suggests  the  historically  eclectic  vocabulary  of 

postmodernism.  And  what  better  way  to  express  it  than  through  that 

most  postmodern  of  appliances,  the  computer? 


33 

TEST  UB:  LAPTOPS 

This  month 

we  take  ten  top 

portables  on 

the  road  for  a  series  of 

grueling  tests. 


56 

DOS  5.0— A  PERFECT  10 

By  Mark  Minasi 

Here's  the  best  of 

what's  new 

and  how  to  get  the  most 

from  DOS  5.0. 


POINT  &  CLICK 

By  Clifton  Karnes 

Work  out  a  cold 

hard  cache  for  your  GUI  to 

pick  up  speed. 

74 

INTRODOS 

By  Tony  Roberts 

Add  some  life 

to  your  command  line. 

76 

HARDWARE  CLINIC 

By  Mark  Minasi 

Which  computer 

bus  should  you  take? 


COMPUTE  (ISSN  0194.357X)  rs  published  manlhly  in  ihe  United  Siaies  and  Canada  Dy  COMPUTE  Publications  Irternalional  Lid..  1965 
Broadway.  New  Yoik.  NY  10023  5965.  Vblumo  13.  Number  9,  Issue  133.  Copyright  ©  1991  by  COMPUTE  Publioations  Inisrnalional  Lid, 
All  fights  reserved-  Tel  (212)  496^100.  COMPUTE  is  a  registered  iraderrark  ot  COWPUTE  Publications  International  Lid.  Primed  in  the 
USA  and  distnbuted  ^voridwide  by  Curtis  Circulation  Company,  P.O  Box  9102.  (^nnsaLken.  NJ  08103  Second-class  postage  paid  at  New 
York.  Hf.  and  at  additional  mailing  offices.  POSTMASTER:  Send  address  changes  to  COMPUTE  Magazine,  PO.  Sox  3246.  Harian,  lA 
51537-3041,  Tel.  (KM)  727-6937  Entire  conlenis  copyrighted.  All  righis  reserved.  Nothing  may  be  reproduced  in  whole  cr  in  part  without 
written  permission  from  Ihe  publisher.  Subscriptions:  US,  AFO  -  S19.94  one  year;  Canada  and  elsewhere  -S25,94  one  year  Single  copies 
$2.95  in  US.  The  publisher  disclaims  all  responsibility  to  return  unsolicited  matter,  and  all  righis  in  portions  published  thereof  remain  Ihe 
sde  property  o1  COMPUTE  Pubiicalcns  International  Ltd  Letters  sent  to  COMPUTE  or  its  editors  becotrie  Ihe  property  of  the  magazine. 
Editorial  offices  are  located  at  324  W,  Wendover  Ave.,  Sle,  200.  Greensboro,  NC  27408.  Tel.  (919)  275-9809. 


COMPUTE 


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Plus  enjoy  access  to  software 
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Upon  connection,  enter  HHH 


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For  more  information  in 
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Some  features  subject  to  surchai^  and  may  not  be  ai'ailable  outside  VS.  Prices  and  products  listed  as  of  Oct.  1, 1990  subject  to  change. 

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connpuTE 


80 

DISK  UPDATE 

By  Richard  C.  Leinecker. 

The  latest  on 

COMPUTE'S  PC  Disk. 


82 

STACKER 

By  Clifton  Karnes 

Double  your 

hard  disk  space  with  this 

combo. 


84 

WORKPLACE 

By  Daniel  Janal 

Use  your  PC  to  automate 

thank-you  notes. 

86 

STREET  LEGAL 

By  Rosalind  Resnick  and 

Susie  Archer 

Keep  your  home  office 

running  on 
the  straight  and  narrow. 

90 

ARTS  &  LHTERS 

By  Robert  Bixby 
CorelDRAW!  outshines 
the  competition  with  an 

array  of  impressive 
features  and  an  elegant. 

easy-to-use  design. 

92 

TRANSPARENT  LANGUAGE 

By  Anthony  Moses 
Everyone  wants  to  know  a 

foreign  language,  but 

nobody  wants  to  learn  one. 

Here's  a  way. 


113 

REVIEWS 

Sneak  Peeks  of  Reader 

Rabbit  II  and  T/ie  Treehouse. 

Also,  more 

than  two  dozen  reviews  of 

leading  productivity, 

entertainment,  and  education 

packages. 


94 

PATHWAYS 

By  Steven  Anzovin 
Carpal  tunnel  syndrome. 

Typist's  neck. 
Computer  ailments  with 

a  single 
culprit:  your  keyboard. 

96 

GREAT  HEAVENS  ABOVE 

By  Lament  Wood 
Reach  for  the  stars 

with  your 
personal  computer, 

100 

FAST  FORWARD 

By  David  English 

Your  laptop's  parallel  port  is 

the  secret  for 

avoiding  obsolescence. 

106 

CHUCK  YEAGER'S 
AIR  COMBAT 

By  Denny  Atkin 

One  of  the  best  combat 

flight  simulations  ever. 

108 

GAMEPLAY 

By  Orson  Scott  Card 

In  war  games,  abstraction 

doesn't  equal  distraction. 

110 

MARTIAN  MEMORANDUM:  THE 
MAKING  OF  A  COMPUTER  MOVIE 

By  Richard  0.  f\/lann 
Access  Software's  disk- 
based  video  breakthrough  is 
the  first  computer  "talkie." 


144 

CONVERSATIONS 

By  Peter  Scisco 

Trip  Hawkins  gets 

interactive  on 

multimedia,  entertainment, 

and  education. 


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EDITORIAL  LICENSE 


Peter  Scisco 


Our  new 

presentation  Is 

designed 

to  sirowcase  the 

people  and 

Ideas  that  mahe 

COMPUTE 

Uie  magazine  It  Is. 


If  you're  familiar  with  Woody 
Allen,  you  might  remember 
a  scene  from  Annie  Hall  in 
which  our  intrepid  but 
angstridden  protagonist  com- 
pares his  current  love  relation- 
ship to  a  shark.  "It  has  to 
keep  moving  forward,"  he 
says,  "or  else  it  dies."  The 
joke  comes  when  Alvie  Singer 
closes  his  metaphor:  "I  think 
we  have  a  dead  shark  on  our 
hands." 

It's  a  very  funny  line,  first  be- 
cause of  the  incongruity  of 
comparing  love  to  a  meat-eat- 
ing fish  (who  can  hear  that 
line  and  not  think  of  Jaws?) 
and  second  because  of  its 
small  glimmer  of  truth. 

Magazines,  like  sharks  and 
love,  also  must  move  forward. 
(1  think  only  network  television 
reinvents  itself  faster.) 

This  issue  of  COMPUTE 
marks  another  stage  in  our  ev- 
olution toward  becoming  a 
computer  magazine  of  the 
nineties,  which  promise  to  be 
a  decade  in  which  value  re- 
places vanity  and  activism 
replaces  avarice.  The  person- 
al computer  can  play  an  impor- 
tant role  in  all  of  this  as  the 


tool  for  people  who've  chosen 
to  be  active  participants  in 
the  Information  Age. 

Employers,  coworkers,  and 
neighbors  look  to  COMPUTE 
readers  for  advice  in  choos- 
ing, evaluating,  and  buying 
computers,  software,  printers, 
and  all  the  rest  of  the  devices 
that  complement  today's  so- 
phisticated PCs.  Industry  an- 
alysts and  researchers  point 
to  the  consumer  market  as 
the  fastest  growing  segment 
of  the  computer  market.  Just 
visit  your  neighborhood  elec- 
tronics store  or  the  office  su- 
perstore down  the  highway, 
and  you're  likely  to  see 
stacks  of  computer  products 
laid  out  like  so  many  stereos 
and  typewhters. 

The  reasons  behind  this 
shift  range  from  falling  prices 
to  changing  social  attitudes. 
Fully  equipped  386SX  PCs 
sell  for  under  $1,900;  286- 
based  PCs,  low-end  Macs, 
and  hard-drive  equipped  Ami- 
gas  sell  for  less  than  $1,000. 
Professionals  looking  for  qual- 
ity family  time  are  choosing  to 
bring  work  home  or  telecom- 
mute.  Other  workers,  victims 
of  a  tight  economy,  are  strik- 
ing out  on  their  own,  using 
the  PC  as  a  support  staff  for  a 
variety  of  home-based  servic- 
es and  other  businesses. 

You  might  be  an  old  hand 
at  blazing  trails  through  the  of- 
ten confusing  and  contradicto- 
ry world  of  computer  technol- 
ogy, or  you  might  be  new  to 
the  silicon  jungle.  But  no  mat- 
ter where  you  fall  in  that 
range,  one  thing  is  certain — 
once  you  bring  that  PC 
home,  your  world  unfolds  into 
an  expanding  universe  of  pos- 
sibilities. 

In  looking  through  this  is- 
sue of  COMPUTE,  you'll  see  a 
lot  of  new  images.  But  you'll  al- 
so find  some  old  favorites.  For 
example,  we've  brought  our 
COMPUTE  Choice  reviews 
back  to  the  departments 
where  they  belong,  where  we 


can  showcase  these  worthy 
products  and  give  them  the  in- 
depth  treatment  they  de- 
serve. Our  Test  Lab  section 
boasts  a  new  design  and  lay- 
out. Inside,  you'll  still  find  the 
information  and  benchmark 
testing  to  guide  you  toward 
making  the  best  buying  deci- 
sions based  on  your  needs, 
not  on  manufacturers'  spec 
sheets. 

Our  Home  Office  depart- 
ment will  continue  to  examine 
strategies  to  make  you  more 
productive  with  your  PC, 
whether  you're  a  home- 
based  entrepreneur  or  run- 
ning an  extended  office  and 
telecommuting  to  company 
headquarters.  In  Discovery, 
you'll  read  of  creative  uses  for 
the  computer  and  learn  how 
to  use  all  this  new  technology 
to  give  your  kids  an  edge  in 
the  classroom.  In  Entertain- 
ment, you'll  get  a  close  look 
at  the  latest  in  electronic 
games,  from  executive  play 
toys  to  virtual  reality. 

Along  the  way,  COMPUTE 
will  showcase  artists  who  are 
using  computers  to  create  the 
images,  music,  and  writing 
that  will  define  for  the  history 
books  a  generation  of  techno- 
savvy  electronic  eclectics. 

The  way  people  use  com- 
puters and  the  possibilities  of 
computer  technology  deter- 
mine the  shape  of  COM- 
PUTE 

If  you  don't  own  the  fastest, 
most  powerful  computer  in 
the  world,  if  you've  used  your 
computer  only  for  word  proc- 
essing and  number  crunch- 
ing, we'll  help  you  upgrade 
your  system  and  discover 
new  uses  like  video,  multime- 
dia, and  desktop  publishing. 
If  you  use  your  computer  in  iso- 
lation, as  a  vessel  of  technol- 
ogy, we'll  help  you  set  sail  in- 
to the  world  of  telecommunica- 
tions where  you  can  join  an  ar- 
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you  over  80,000  concise  definitions 
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vi^Hivi..  ciinviHc.iii.i),.  ijiitaL  invu»cihtH_  ^-^"""^"^^ 
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3. 


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MASTER  WORKS 

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Method  of  ftymenu  Diskette  Sitt!  03 'A'   OiV 

D  Check  Enclosed    D  Chacge  my  credit  card:    D  MasterCard    DVISA    DAMEX    D  Optima 


Venioa: 

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BeckerTools  Utility) 
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D  Macintosh  |With 
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Address 

CiH'.  State,  Zip  — 
D8>time  Phone - 


No  P.O.  Boxes  plei 


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circle  Reader  Service  Number  189 


NEWS  &  NOTES 


Alan  R.  Bechtold 


Leading  Edge 

hopes  to  live  up  to 

its  name  witti 

ttie  introduction  ot 

N3/SX  and 

N3/SX20  notebooks. 


A  Difference  of  Opinion 

The  federal  judge  who  at  first 
ruled  Ashton-Tate's  dBASE 
copyright  claim  invalid  in 
1990  has  reversed  his  own  de- 
cision. According  to  the  Wall 
Street  Journal,  software  pub- 
lishers and  industry  iegal  ea- 
gles did  a  double  take  be- 
cause such  rapid  reversals 
are  a  rarity  in  the  U.S.  judicial 
system.  The  reversal  doesn't 
spell  instant  relief  for  Ashton- 
Tate, however,  who  must  still 
defend  its  dBASE  copyright 
in  a  lawsuit  filed  by  Fox  Soft- 
ware, publisher  of  the  popular 
Foxbase  dBASE  ///-compati- 
ble software  packages  and  util- 
ities. The  decision  should 
give  Ashton-Tate  a  bit  more  le- 
gal ground  when  the  suit 
reaches  court.  Judge  Terry  J. 
Hatter  gave  no  reason  for  his 
sudden  reversal. 

Into  the  Notebook  Fray 

Until  now.  Leading  Edge  Prod- 
ucts resisted  the  urge  to  enter 
the  notebook  PC  market — but 
it  couldn't  resist  forever.  The 
company  just  unveiled  the 


N3/SX  and  N3/SX20,  its  first 
two  entries  in  the  notebook 
market. 

The  new  Leading  Edge 
notebook  PCs  weigh  just  6.9 
pounds  each.  Both  feature  9- 
inch  diagonal  sidelit  triple  su- 
pertwist  LCD  displays  with 
640  X  480  VGA  resolution  ca- 
pable of  generating  32 
shades  of  gray.  Each  comes 
equipped  with  an  84-key  key- 
board with  an  embedded  nu- 
meric keypad,  12  function 
keys,  and  inverted-T  cursor 
keys  with  key  spacing  de- 
signed for  ease  of  use. 

The  N3/SX  features  a 
3B6SX  processor  running  at 
16  fvlHz  and  support  for  an 
80387  coprocessor.  It  comes 
standard  with  1MB  of  memo- 
ry, expandable  to  5MB,  a 
1.44MB  floppy  drive,  and  a 
20MB  hard  drive.  A  proprie- 
tary slot  is  dedicated  for  an  op- 
tional 9600-bps  fax  and  data 
modem.  The  unit  is  powered 
by  either  an  AG  power  adapt- 
er or  ni-cad  batteries.  The  unit 
retails  for  $2,595. 

The  N3/SX20  has  the  same 
features  as  the  N3/SX  with  the 
exception  of  a  20-MHz  proces- 
sor and  either  a  30MB  or 
60MB  hard  drive.  The  30MB 
version  retails  for  $2,895;  the 
60MB  version  retails  for 
$3,195.  For  more  information, 
contact  Leading  Edge  Prod- 
ucts, 117  Flanders  Road,  West- 
borough,  Massachusetts 
01581;  (508)836-4800. 

Apple  Suit  Broadened 

According  to  Microsoft  corpo- 
rate spokespersons,  Apple 
Computer     wants    to 
broaden  the  scope 
of       its       lawsuit 
against   Microsoft 
and  Hewlett-Pack- 
ard to  include  Mi- 
crosoft   Windows 
3.0.  The  original  law- 
suit, filed  by  Apple  in  March 
1988,  alleges  that  Windows 
2.03,  which  was  the  Windows 
version  on  the  market  at  that 


time,  infringed  on  Apple's 
copyrights.  Windows  3.0  was 
released  in  May  1990. 

Microsoft  claims  the  intent 
to  amend  the  complaint  was 
disclosed  in  a  phone  call 
from  Apple's  general  counsel. 
Since  the  original  filing  of  the 
lawsuit,  Microsoft  maintains 
that  it  hasn't  infringed  on  any 
Apple  copyrights  and  that  it 
will  continue  to  fight  these  al- 
legations vigorously. 

More  Troubles  for 
Microsoft? 

Lawsuits  from  Apple  aren't 
the  only  things  Microsoft  has 
to  worry  about  lately.  Accord- 
ing to  Microsoft  officials,  the 
staff  of  the  Federal  Trade  Com- 
mission has  decided  to  ex- 
pand the  scope  of  its  nonpub- 
lic investigation  of  the  compa- 
ny. The  FTC  plans  to  examine 
third-party  allegations  that  Mi- 
crosoft "has  monopolized  or 
has  attempted  to  monopolize 
the  market  for  operating  sys- 
tems, operating  environ- 
ments, computer  software, 
and  computer  peripherals  for 
personal  computers," 

Until  April  10  of  this  year, 
the  focus  was  on  an  alleged 
horizontal  agreement  be- 
tween Microsoft  and  IBM.  The 
agreement  was  purportedly  re- 
flected in  a  joint  press  release 
issued  at  Comdex  in  Novem- 
ber 1989.  That  press  release 
discussed  future  directions  of 
OS/2  and  Windows. 

Reconcilable  Differences 

You  want  to  buy  a  Sharp  Elec- 
tronics Wizard  palmtop  organ- 
izer to  help  you  stay  on  sched- 
ule, but  what  will  that  mean 
for  the  schedule  on  your  desk- 
top PC?  Will  you  be  forced  to 
keep  two  computer  sched- 
ules updated  and  reconciled? 
The  answer  is  No.  thanks  to 
Borland's  Sidekick  2.0  and 
the  new  Sharp  Organizer 
Link  II. 

The  Wizard  can  easily  be 
connected  to  a  desktop  PC 


Become  a  Lotus'  1-2-3 
"Spreadsheet  Performer", 

Forget  about  thick  manuals.  Forget  about  searching 

for  the  right  key  to  punch.  Because  now  you  can  get 
help  right  on  the  screen — with  MicroTutor*  for  Lotus. 
You  work  smarter  and  faster  with  iVIicroTutor's  tips  and 
easy  instructions.  It's  quicker  and  simpler  than  any  book 
or  seminatT.vand  it's  only  $49.95. 

Here's  How  It  Works 

MicroTuior'.s  on-screen  help  walks  you  through  Lotus  1-2-3  functions— 
fonnat.s.  r.inges.  printing,  gniphics  nnd  nioru.  You  can  go  through  the  complete 
coiir.su  or  ;icce.ss  jJi«Hhe  hcl)5  you  [lecd.  Vou  quickly  create  e;t.sy-to-read, 
accurate  .spread.sheet.s. 


What  You  Learn 

■  Hov\-  to  get  sraned 

■  How  to  luiiki  complete,  ea.sy-to-read- 
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apciearance 

■  How  to  use  Lotus  graphics  capabilitte.s 


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Learn  Lotus  1-2-3 
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F)       GtionihcFASTm^CK 
nOU        with  MlCROTl.TOR ... 


rf 


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Your  Five  Bottom-Line  Benefits 

1.  You  learn  Lotus  1-2-3  in  -i  hours- 
guaranteed. 

2.  You  have  hel[;>  at  your  ilngenijjs  any 
time  you  need  it. 

3-  You  can  share  MicroTtitor  with  your 
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I.  Your  spreadsheets  look  better  becaii.se 
you  know  all  the  formatting  dps  and 
shortcuts. 

5.  YoLi  earn  back  the  low  cost  many  times 
over-— becau.se  MicroTutor  is  faster  and 
easier  than  any  seminar  or  manual. 


p.. 


I%1 


fiS  Lve  gone  to 

.seminars  to  learn  computer 

applications,  but  after  they  were  o\er  I 

had  forgotten  some  of  the  instRitlion.  With 

MicroTuior,  ever\Thing  is  there  for  you  to  refer 

to  if  you  forget  something  or  need  heli5.9§ 

' — Marcia  Scott,  Massachu.setts 


Your  Satisfaction  is 
Triple  Guaranteed 

1.  If  you  don't  learn  Lotus  1-2-3  within  4 
hours,  return  the  tutorial  and  receive  a  full 
refund. 

2.  If  in  the  first  30  days  you  don't  save  hours 
using  Lotus  1-2-3,  return  MicroTutor  and 
receive  a  full  refund. 

3.  If  you  aren't  satisfied  with  MicroTutor 
within  30  days,  return  your  purchase  for  a 
full  refund. 

Put  it  to  the  test.  Send  it  back  if  yoti're  not 
completely  satisfied.  No  que.stions  asked. 


How  To  Order 

1.  Call  1-800-828-2917  and  use  your  Master- 
Card,  .\m'X.  VISA  or  Discover  Card. 

2.  Fax  the  coupon  below  to  717-343-8041. 

3-  Mail  the  coupon  below  to  National  Learn- 
ing Systems,  Dept.  000000,  92t  Oak  St., 
Scranton.  I'A  18Sli. 


National  Learning  Systems,  Dept.  ABXB91 

925  Oak  Street,  Scranton,  PA  18515 

Ypfif  '  ^^''"' ""  '''''^'■'  ''"^^"  ^'''"*'"f^  ""  "'y  ^'t:-  •''L'nd  .MicroTutor  to  me  for  the 
lv9i  product(s)  checked.  1  under.siand  I  ha\e  30  days  to  return  MicroTutor 
for  a  full  refund  if  I'm  not  completely  satisfied. 

Name 

Title 


Call  Now:  1-800-828-2917,  Dept  abxb9i 

All  orders  shipped  within  iS  hours. 


1  need  this  disk  size:  D  5  'A"  D  3  '.^'  1 1  Do  you  have  a  hard  drive?  D  Yes  D  No 


Company, 
Address 


_2ip_ 


City 'Slate 

i^hone  (  ) 

D  Check  or  .Money  Order  Enclo,sed  D  I'u  rtlia.se  Order  Enclosed 
Charge  to: 

D  Ma-steiCard  D  A.MKX  D  VI.SA  D  Di.scover  Cant      Hxpire.s_ 
Card  3 


Signature . 


All  iirtkfs  muvt  Ih-  ^i^nc^.l 


Plea.se  mark  your selection(s)' ami  calculate  yourioial  l>clou. 

D  Lotus  1-2-3  Release  3.1 S'iy.95 

D  Lotus  1-2-3  Release  2.2 S49.95 

D  Lotus  1-2-3  Release  2.0 S49.95 

D  Lotus  MacrcK .'. S49.95 

(For  all  Lotus  Relea,ses) 

n  WordPerfect'  5.1 $49.95 

□  WbjciPerfect*  5.0 ..S49.95 

DMS-DOSM.Ol S49,95 

D  MS-DOS' 3.3 S49,95 

n  Leam  to  Use  a  PC S49.95 

Total »  of  Seleaions at  S49.95  each= S 

Shipping  and  Handling s     -■9> 

(AK.  HI,  PR,  PO.  Box,  $5.20;  Foreign,  S15.95) 

Add  Sales  Tax  (PA  6%) ..,„. s 

Software  names  are  registered  trademarks  of  (heir  respective 


companies.  Copyright  ©  National  teaming  Systems 
Circle  Reader  Service  Number  201 


TOTAL  S 


NEWS  &  NOTES 


with  a  cable  included  with  the 
Sharp  Organizer  Link  II  pack- 
age for  connecting  palmtop  or- 
ganizers to  desktop  PCs.  Spe- 
cial software,  which  is  loaded 
on  the  desktop  PC,  manages 
the  transfer  of  schedules  di- 
rectly into  Sidekick's  Time  Plan- 
ner feature.  Sidekick's  Recon- 
ciliation feature  then  com- 
pares the  two  schedules  and 
reconciles  any  discrepancies, 
consolidating  them  into  a  com- 
mon file. 

The  Time  Planner,  which  in- 
cludes an  appointment  book, 
calendar,  and  to-do  list,  can 
automatically  track  and  exe- 
cute actions  such  as  sending 
MCI  Mail  messages  or  activat- 
ing a  pager.  In  addition  to  the 
Time  Planner,  Sidekick  has 
an  address  book,  notepad, 
and  calculator.  The  Wizard  in- 
cludes an  address  book,  tele- 
phone directory,  world  clock, 
notepad,  and  calculator. 

A  Home  Computer  That 
Means  Business 

Radio  Shack's  newest  person- 
al computer,  the  Tandy  1000 
RLX,  is  a  home  computer  de- 
signed to  meet  the  demands 
of  many  small  businesses. 
This  IBM-compatible  PC  car- 
ries the  extra  power  of  a  10- 
MHz  80286  microprocessor 
and  one  3'/2-inch  1 .44MB  flop- 
py drive.  A  second  SVa-inch 
drive  bay  accepts  either  a  flop- 
py drive  or  a  20-40MB  hard 
drive.  The  system  also  has 
one  PC-compatible  expan- 
sion slot. 

The  1000  RLX  includes  Tan- 
dy's DeskMate  and  DeskMate 
Home  Organizer's  24  easy-to- 
use  home  management  appli- 
cations. Pull-down  menus 
and  pop-up  dialog  boxes, 
along  with  the  point-and-click 
convenience  of  Tandy's 
mouse,  permit  quick  and 
easy  performance  of  most 
tasks.  Both  the  hard  and  flop- 
py disk  configurations  include 
high-resolution  VGA  graphics, 
a  voice  message  option  in 

10        COMPUTE 


DeskMate's  Information  Cen- 
ter, a  two-button  mouse,  two 
joystick  connectors,  micro- 
phone and  stereo  headphone 
jacks,  and  a  realtime  clock 
with  battery  backup.  All  inter- 
nal components  are  designed 
to  function  without  an  internal 
fan,  meaning  the  1000  RLX 
runs  cooler  and  quieter  than 
most  computers  on  the  mar- 
ket today. 

Suggested  retail  prices  are 
$799.95  for  the  1000  RLX  and 
$1,199.95  for  the  1000  RLX 
hard  drive  model.  Monitors 
are  additional. 

900  Woys  fo  Fix  It 

Epson  America  has  found  a 
convenient  way  to  charge  cus- 
tomers for  help  with  the  instal- 
lation, configuration,  and  oper- 
ation of  their  computers.  A 
new  900  telephone  line  (900- 
988-4949)  supplements  the 
end-user  assistance  regularly 
provided  by  Epson  author- 
ized resellers.  The  900  line  is 
open  Monday-Friday,  10 
a.m. -7  p.m.  Callers  are  con- 
nected with  an  Epson  support 
representative  after  a  pre- 
recorded message,  which 
states  that  after  an  initial  min- 
ute of  free  time,  the  caller  will 
be  billed  at  a  rate  of  $2  per 
minute. 

End  users  who  need  assis- 
tance locating  the  nearest  Ep- 
son Customer  Care  Center 
should  call  (800)  289-3776. 

IBM  Goes  to  Hollywood 

The  latest  Hollywood  pre- 
miere isn't  an  action-packed 
star-studded  motion  picture. 
It's  IBM's  new  presentation 
graphics  software.  Dubbed 
Hoilywood.  the  package  al- 
lows business  professionals 
to  create  high-quality 
hardcopy,  transparencies, 
slides,  and  onscreen  presen- 
tations. 

Hollywood  runs  in  Windows 
3.0.  Text-  and  graphics- 
based  presentations  are  easi- 
ly created   using   the   pro- 


gram's integrated  outliner,  tem- 
plates, color  schemes,  fully 
scalable  fonts,  and  charting, 
drawing,  and  painting  tools. 
The  program  also  features  a 
sophisticated  screen-show  ca- 
pability. A  spreadsheetlike  in- 
terface makes  entering  data 
for  presentations  easier,  and 
the  runtime  screen-show  mod- 
ule lets  users  create  presenta- 
tions that  include  sophisticat- 
ed transition  effects,  which 
can  be  distributed  and  dis- 
played without  Hollywood  but 
still  within  licensed  use. 

Hollywood  requires  an  IBM 
PC,  PS/2,  or  IBM-tested  com- 
patible with  at  least  an  80286- 
based  processor  (386  or  high- 
er is  recommended),  a  hard 
drive,  and  1,6MB  of  RAM 
(2MB  or  more  is  recommend- 
ed); DOS  version  3.3  or  high- 
er; Microsoft  Windows  3.0;  an 
IBM  or  Microsoft  mouse  or 
compatible;  and  any  Win- 
dows 3,0-supported  color  vid- 
eo adapter.  Suggested  retail 
price  is  $495. 

For  product  information 
and  a  demonstration  disk, 
call  (800)  IBM-7699. 

Too  Much  Silicon? 

What  could  be  more  perfect 
for  the  beach  than  a  comput- 
er made  entirely  of  sand? 
World-famous  sand  sculptor 
Todd  Vander  Pluym  created 
the  sand  computer  as  a 
stage  for  an  international 
awards  presentation  honoring 
technical  computer  solutions. 
The  idea  was  a  natural.  "The 
raw  material  of  the  silicon 
chip — the  foundation  of  the 
modern  computer — is  sand," 
said  Vander  Pluym.  Unfortu- 
nately the  computer  isn't  ex- 
actly portable,  weighing 
about  25  tons.  The  all-sand 
work  of  art  was  also  doomed 
to  break  down  quickly  but  for- 
tunately it  held  up  long 
enough  to  stage  the  awards 
ceremony. 

Recipients  of  the  1991 
CSC  Technical   Excellence 


Another  Eastern  block  falls. 


There's  a  new'TRIS  on  the  block,  its  name  is 
WORDTRIS.  And  if  you  love  TETRIS,  this  latest  fast-action, 
falling  block,  Soviet  game  will  boggle  your  mind. 

This  time  the  falling  pieces  are  letter  blocks.  Form  them 
into  words  and  score  points.  As 
each  block  falls,  it  pushes  down 
the  blocks  below,  producing  an 
ever-changing  kaleidoscope  of 
letters  where  scoring  oppor- 
tunities appear-  and  vanish  - 
at  the  Wink  of  an  eye. 

Create  words  horizontally  or 
vertically,  but  don't  put  all  your 
E's  in  one  BASKET  Because 
every  time  a  word  lines  up,  poof!  those  letters  disappear, 
and  the  blocks  below  pop  up  to  fill  the  spaces.  So  when- 
ever you  earn  points  you  stir  up  the  alphabet  soup.  And 
suddenly  that  falling  M  has  no  HOME  to  go  to. 

Avallablein  retail  storesor  for  Visa/MasterCard  orderscall  lollfree, 

24  hours  a  day.7  days  a  weefc  1  -800-695-G  A  M  E  (Orders  Only) 

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wmm 


GoforXVLOPHOMEifyoudare. 


WORDTRIS  keeps  raining  vowels  and  consonants  until 
you've  collected  enough  words  to  move  to  the  next  level, 
or  the  well  fills  up.  Of  course,  each  successive  roundups 
the  ante  as  the  blocks  fall  ever  faster.  But  you  can  choose 
your  difficulty  level  to  match 
your  skills,  and  select  from 
single  player,  cooperative, 
competitive,  head-to-head  or 
tournament  modes.  The 
built-in  30,000  word  diction- 
ary verifies  even  the  most 
obscure  word. 

Set  the  difficulty  level  at 
10  and  you'll  find  WORDTRIS 
harder  to  keep  up  with  than 
the  changes  in  Eastern  Europe, 

WORDTRIS.  Another  great 
game  from  the  TETRIS  people. 


SSilQIEaiEll 


SIpectntmHoioByte 


Available  (or  IBM  and  Mac/Macll. 


Spectrum  HdoB^^ 

A  Division  of  Spiiere,  Inc.  2061  Challenger  Drive,  Alameda, CA  94501 


So™  SmwiiBMVC  A.  WOEJTlffi  Copyright  ewWAmenka.litAIJRi^BResen'td.WOBTtB  led  5(1^^ 
TniUSCt5iyrighl  eiW  V/0  ElKimjgglediiUa  lEtegl  TFIlBis  a  tratoirk  of  Eloti.  TFTliB 

Circle  Rndsr  Service  Number  1S2 


NEWS  &  NOTES 


Credit-card- 
size  memory  cards 
store  data 
in  Hewiett-Pacliard's 
new  palmtop. 


Awards  were  Robert  Heppe 
of  Washington,  D.C.,  who 
helps  the  United  States  keep 
tabs  on  satellites — where 
they  are  and  where  they're  go- 
ing; Paul  Gustafson  of  Chica- 
go, Illinois,  who  helps  indus- 
tries cut  costs  by  increasing 
workloads  on  their  existing 
mainframe  computers:  Luc 
Mercier  of  Brussels,  Belgium, 
who  helps  governments  and  in- 
ternational industries  track 
down  bugs,  viruses,  and  oth- 
er problems  in  computer  net- 
works; Eric  Booth  of  Lanham, 
fvlaryland,  who  has  discov- 
ered ways  to  stretch  the  life  of 
satellite  software  through 
reuse;  and  Paul  Chapman  of 
Belmont,  Massachusetts,  who 
employed  higher  mathemat- 
ics to  reduce  the  amount  of 
steel  used  in  manufacturing 
processes. 

Travel  Agent  on  a  Disk 

tf  you've  had  it  with  red-eyes 
or  500-mile  flights  that  should 
only  take  an  hour  but  require 
four  connections  and  three  lay- 
overs, don't  despair.  Now  you 
can  figure  out  your  own  flight 
itinerary  and  then  have  your 
travel  agent  book  the  flights 
and  make  all  the  other  neces- 
sary arrangements. 

Now  you  can  view  more 
than  250,000  direct  and  sin- 
gle-connection flights  to  and 
from  1200  destination  cities 
right  on  your  own  PC,  without 
a  modem.  Flight  Disk,  from  Of- 
ficial Airline  Guides  (GAG),  is 
a  collection  of  floppy  disks 
featuring  information  on  direct 
and  connecting  flights  for  the 
most  frequently  traveled  city 
pairs  in  the  United  States,  Can- 
ada, Mexico,  and  the  Caribbe- 
an. 

The  computer  makes  all 
the  information — over  700  pag- 
es' worth — contained  in  the 
OAG  Desktop  Flight  Guide  for 
North  America  available  elec- 
tronically at  a  glance.  Previ- 
ous editions  of  Flight  Disk  con- 
tained schedules  for  about 


110,000  flights  and  600  desti- 
nations. 

Flight  Disk  is  offered  on 
a  subscription  basis  for  a 
yearly  fee  of  S199  plus  $15 
for  postage  and  handling,  or 
$99  plus  postage  and  han- 
dling for  subscribers  to  the 
OAG  Desktop  Flight 
Guide,  North  Ameri- 
can edition.  New  is- 
sues are  published 
monthly. 

Anyone  interested 
in  a  free  30-day  trial 
of  Flight  Disk  can 
call     (800)     323- 
3537. 

One  Million 
Served 

Borland  In- 
ternation- 
al's Quattro 
Pro  spread- 
sheet soft- 
ware is  selling  like  hot  cakes. 
Since  its  introduction  nearly 
two  years  ago,  over  1  million 
copies  of  the  program  have 
been  sold. 

The  growing  worldwide 
spreadsheet  market  might  ac- 
count for  some  of  Borland's 
success  with  Quattro  Pro.  Win- 
ning an  unprecedented  37  in- 
ternational industry  awards 
doesn't  hurt,  either.  Since 
1989,  Borland's  share  of  the 
worldwide  spreadsheet  mar- 
ket has  grown  from  8  percent 
to  20  percent.  In  the  U.S.,  its 
share  has  doubled,  growing 
from  12  percent  to  24  percent 
in  the  same  time  period. 

Check  Out  This  Palmtop 

Just  when  you  thought  com- 
puters couldn't  get  any  small- 
er, Hewlett-Packard  unveils  a 
new  palmtop  PC  that's  about 
the  size  of  a  standard  check- 
book. Weighing  just  11  ounc- 
es, the  95LX  comes  with  DOS 
3.22,  Lotus  1-2-3,  and  an  ar- 
ray of  organizer  tools,  all  load- 
ed in  ROM  and  ready  to  use. 
Other  very  useful  features  in- 
clude an  advanced  financial 


calculator  and  communica- 
tions capabilities. 

The  95LX  has  a  QWERTY 
keyboard  and  uses  credit- 
card-size  memory  cards  to 
store  data.  A  modem  port 
and  printer  port  are  also  includ- 
ed. It  retails  for  $699. 


For  more  information,  con- 
tact Inquiries  Manager,  Hew- 
lett-Packard Company,  1000 
NE  Circle  Boulevard,  Corval- 
lis,  Oregon  97330;  (503)  752- 
7736, 

TV  for  Computer  Lovers 

Serious  computer  users  are  of- 
ten too  busy  watching  their 
monitors  to  spend  much  time 
watching  television.  When  the 
subject  is  computers,  howev- 
er, it's  a  different  matter.  The 
PBS  series  "Computer  Chroni- 
cles" is  apparently  one  of  the 
best  television  programs 
around  with  a  focus  on  com- 
puters. The  program  was  re- 
cently named  Best  Computer 
Television  Program  of  1990  at 
the  Sixth  Annual  Computer 
Press  Association  Awards. 
The  show  won  out  over  some 
tough  competition,  including 
ABC's  "Business  World"  and 
CNN's  "Future  Bytes." 


Alan  R,  Bechtold  is  editor  of  In- 
fo-Ma(  Magazine,  an  electron- 
ic news  weekly  published  by 
BBS  Press  Service.  O 


12        COMPUTE 


My  Citizen  Makes  Working  At 
HOME  LOOK  VERY  Attractive. 


SIMPBOirS    -_ 


PROPOSED  TREES  FOR 
MAIN  STREET  UBRARY  PROJECT 


From  advertising  copy  to  business  letters  to  product 
descriptions  and  designs,  the  Citizen  GSX-130  is  the  practical 
24-wire  printer  for  the  smaJl  business  or  office  at  home.  It's  one  of 
the  fastest  printers  in  its  class.  And  it  gives  you  just  about 
everything  you  might  need. 

Even  color.  It's  easy  to  print  attention-getting  documents  that 
express  your  ideas,  facts  and  figures  with  impact.  Simply  snap  in 
the  optional  Color  On  Command™  kit  and  start  printing  in  color 
with  the  software  you  probably  already  own. 

With  Command- Vue  11'"  you're  in  control  of  color,  pitch, 
popular  typefaces,  page  layout  and  more.  All  in  plain  English,  all 
with  the  touch  of  a  switch. 

The  GSX-130  handles  paper  easily  and  effortlessly,  too,  with 
continuous  paper  tear-off  that  instantly  advances  the  next  page  to 


the  tear-off  bar.  Paper  parking  allows  you  to  switch  between 
continuous  paper  and  single  sheets,  so  you're  always  ready  for  anything. 

You'll  have  all  the  power  you  need,  all  al^ 
a  great  value.  And  to  assure  you  of  that, 
we  include  the  Citizen  Pledge  of 
Quality  -  a  two-year  warranty.  ■ 

The  Citizen  GSX-130. 
The  practical  way  to 
professional  printing. 
For  more  information  call 
1-800-556-1234  ext.  34. 


CI  991  Clizan  America  Corporation 

Gliafi,  Cobr  On  Corrnoftd,  Caftmnnd-Vu*  U  end  ^ 

GdzOT  lo^Q  on  Irodtmartu  ai  M  CJtwi  Wath  Co.  Ud. 


^CITIZEN" 


Circle  RoBdsr  Service  Number  1ES 


FEEDBACK 


Amiga  and  8-bit 

Commodore 

coverage,  removing 

bad  sectors, 

using  GETS  and  PUTs, 

contacting 

GeoWorks,  and  more. 


Representative  Sample 

1  could  see  it  coming  a  few 
months  ago:  COMPUTE  has 
gone  IBM  on  us,  rendering  it- 
self useless  to  those  of  us 
who  had  subscribed  for  the 
very  reason  that  it  featured  oth- 
er computers.  I  think  that  the 
subtitle  of  your  magazine 
should  be  changed  to  The 
Complete  IBM-Compatible 
Computer  Resource.  You 
can't  possibly  be  giving  a  fair 
representation  of  the  negative 
mail  you're  receiving. 

LEUND  JONES 
DALLAS,  TX 

COMPUTE  still  covers  the  Ami- 
ga and  8-bit  Commodore  com- 
puters. Issues  of  COMPUTE 
are  created  for  these  comput- 
ers in  a  very  complex  binding 
process  and  sent  to  readers 
who  subscribe  to  Amiga  Re- 
source or  Gazette.  If  you're 
not  getting  the  issues  you 
want  to  read,  write  to  us,  and 
we'll  notify  the  subscription 
sen/Ice  that  you  want  your  sub- 
scription changed.  Or  for 
more  rapid  response,  call 
(800)  727-6937  and  request 
that  your  subscription  be 
changed  to  the  multiple-sub- 
scriber edition.  We  try  to  pub- 
lish a  representative  sample 
of  mail  in  "Feedbacl<,"  as 
well  as  letters  that  will  be  help- 
ful to  other  readers.  It's  true 
that  we  receive  some  letters 
from  Amiga  and  8-bit  Commo- 
dore owners  confused  by  the 
changes  in  COMPUTE. 
Thanl<s  for  giving  us  the  oppor- 
tunity to  explain  how  we  han- 
dle the  special  sections. 

Hard  Disk  Headache 

When  I  run  CHKDSK  on  my 
20MB  hard  disk,  it  shows 
98,304  bytes  in  bad  sectors. 
Will  a  reformat  of  the  hard 
drive  remove  the  bad  sec- 
tors? Also,  when  I  first  pur- 
chased my  computer,  it 
would  automatically  boot 
from  the  C  drive.  Now  it  re- 
quires a  system  disk  in  drive 


A  to  boot  up.  What  did  I  do 
wrong? 

ALFRED  M,  BELL 
ARLINGTON,  VA 

Reformatting  your  hard  disk 
won't  eliminate  the  bad  sec- 
tors, and  you  wouldn't  want  to 
eliminate  them  because  using 
those  marginal  sectors  could 
endanger  your  data.  Hard 
disk  manufacturers  thorough- 
ly test  their  products  for  de- 
fects and  areas  that  may  not 
reliably  hold  data.  If  defects 
are  found,  a  bad  track  map  is 
created  and  affixed  to  the  top 
of  the  drive.  During  low-level 
formatting,  those  marginal  ar- 
eas are  roped  off  so  no  data 
can  be  stored  there. 

Bad  tracks  usually  com- 
prise less  than  1  percent  of  a 
disk's  total  surface — in  your 
case,  it's  about  half  that 
much.  In  the  normal  course  of 
operations  on  a  hard  disk,  a 
few  bad  sectors  are  nothing 
to  worry  about. 

Your  inability  to  boot  from 
drive  C  indicates  that,  for 
some  reason,  your  system 
has  lost  the  information  that 
tells  it  drive  C  is  a  boot  disk. 
This  is  a  fairly  common  prob- 
lem. The  easiest  solution  is  to 
use  a  commercial  disk-utility 
program  to  identify  and  repair 
the  problem.  No  hard  disk 
owner  should  be  without 
such  software. 

It  also  may  be  possible  to 
repair  the  damage  on  your 
own.  but  first  make  a  backup 
of  the  hard  disk  for  safety. 
Next,  boot  from  a  floppy  disk 
and  use  the  command  SYS 
C:  to  place  new  copies  of  the 
system  files  on  the  hard  disk. 
If  this  fails  to  get  your  hard 
disk  back  to  normal,  you'll 
have  to  reformat  the  disk  to 
make  it  bootable  again.  Be- 
fore going  ahead,  make  sure 
you  have  backups  so  you 
can  restore  your  data. 

Up  a  Tree 

We  at  the  Aldridge  Company 


appreciate  your  review  of 
Tree86  in  the  article  on  DOS 
shells  [COMPUTE,  November 
1990).  I  believe  you  found 
one  of  the  major  strengths  of 
Tree86 — its  small  size.  All  of 
Tree86  fits  on  one  5y4-inch 
disk,  and  it  can  be  run  from  a 
floppy,  making  it  extremely 
portable. 

We'd  like  your  readers  to 
know  that  the  multiple 
screens  Mr.  Bechtold  found 
lacking  will  be  available  in 
the  next  release  of  the  pro- 
gram. 

Another  of  TreeSS's  strong 
points  is  its  intuitiveness  and 
ease  of  use.  This  is  accom- 
plished through  its  pull-down 
menus  accessed  v/ith  hot 
keys.  The  fact  box  included  in 
the  article  indicated  that 
Tree86  used  function  keys 
and  no  menus,  which  is  an  er- 
ror. We'd  iike  to  let  your  read- 
ers know. 

VALERIE  BURSON.  VICE  PRESIDENT 
THE  ALDRIDGE  COMPANY 
HOUSTON,  TX 

In  Search  of  Works 

I  need  the  phone  number 
and  address  for  GeoWorks. 

E.  WILLIAMS 
HUNTINGTON  BEACH.  CA 

The  address  is  GeoWorks, 
2150  Shattuck  Avenue, 
Berkeley  California  94707. 
The  telephone  numbers  are 
(800)  772-0001  for  orders 
and  (4 15)  644-0883  for  the 
company's  offices. 

You  Put  What  You  Get 

I  can't  figure  out  how  to  use 
GET  and  PUT  in  GW-BASIC. 
Also,  I'd  like  to  create  a  menu 
that  will  pop  up  and  then  dis- 
appear. How  can  I  do  that? 

SETH  FULMER 
PALM,  PA 

This  little  program  will  grab 
whatever  is  in  the  upper  left 
corner  of  the  screen  and 
smear  it  In  various  ways 
across  the  screen  (note  that 
you  have  to  type  or  draw 


14        COMPUTE 


UiiSfWZliHj 


•  All  new  graphics  -  the  latest  advances  in  3-D  technology! 

•  DynomJe/nte/Zigence"- the  better  you  fly,  the  better  your  foes  fly! 

•  Toto(/y  new  challenges  -  including  bombers,  taiiguns  and  morel       f"  ms-dos  w/540k  (^ems  ucmixY  raquijod  *«  immnt  rapiayand  J;giKi«i 

.  Instant  replay  -  get  an  audience-eye  view  of  the  action!'   -„^   ^:^^::t;fJ^^,''l'':;;t^^.';^:^:t^^.  ^."^JS^d  d^^l*^"''' 

.  Diglihed  speech  -  unique  voices  for  every  character!'        «®^   ^:it^C\To^6'c::;-ZT>^dif'"r::^^^^^ 

•  Cinematic  storytelling  -  you  re  the  star  in  a  whole  new  story!  (fodemorv  of  origin  systtm.,  ■«.    1991  origin  s^jh™.,  im. 

Available  in  retail  stores  or  call:  1-800-999-4939  for  Visa/Mastercard  orders. 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  18t 


FEEDBACK 


something  In  the  upper  left  cor- 
ner for  this  program  to  work). 
The  PSEl  XOR.  and  OR  op- 
tions were  used  with  PUT. 
You  could  also  use  the  AND 
and  PRESET  options.  Note 
that  you  have  to  dim  an  array 
variable  to  use  it  with  GET, 
but  when  you  use  GET  and 
PUT,  you  leave  off  the  sub- 
script. 

The  second  half  of  the  pro- 
gram creates  a  menu  and  sen/- 
Ices  it.  Of  course,  a  menu  pro- 
gram like  this  only  works 
while  BASIC  Is  running.  If  you 
want  to  create  a  simitar  pro- 
gram that  would  work  in  DOS, 
you  should  create  it  in  C  or  a 
compiled  BASIC. 

10  DIM  A%(1000) 

20  SCREEN  2 

30  GET(0,OH123,123),A% 

40  FOR  I  =  0  TO  75 

50  PUT(I,I),A%,PSET 

60  NEXT 

70  FOR  I  =  0  TO  75 

80  PUT  (75+l,75-l),A%,0R 

90  NEXT 

1D0FORI  =  0TO75 

110  PUT  (150+I,I),A%,XOR 

120  NEXT 

130  CLS 

140PRiNTCHRS(201);;FOR  1  =  0 

TO  11:PRINT  CHR$(205);: 

NEXT:PRINT  CHR$(187) 
150  PRINT  CHR$(186)+"1.  Goto 

D0S"+CHRS(186) 
160  PRINT  CHRS(186)+"2.  Exit 

menu"-f-CHR$(1S6) 
170  PRINT  CHRS(200);:FOR  I  =  0 

TO  llrPRlNT  CHRS(2D5);: 

NEXT:PRINT  CHR$(188) 
180  GET(D,0H144,32),A% 
190  CLS 
200  PRINT"press  any  key  to  show 

menu" 
210  AS  =  INKEYS 
220  IF  AS="  "THEN  210 
230  CLS 

240  PUT(D,0),A%,PSET 
250  A$=INKEY$ 
260  IF  AS="  "THEN  240 
270  IFA$="1"THEN 

CLS:SHELL:CLS 
280  IF  AS="2"THEN  CLS:END 
290  GOTO  250 


PC  or  Not  PC 

In  the  January  1991  issue  of 
COMPUTE,  in  the  "Feed- 
back" column,  you  stated 
that  TSR-management  pro- 
grams called  Mark  and  Re- 
lease were  published  in  the 
January  1990  issue  of  some- 
thing called  COMPUTEI's  PC 
Magazine.  Is  that  something 
different  from  COMPUTE?  I'm 
interested  in  the  disk  you  men- 
tioned. Please  get  me  more  in- 
formation. 

THOMAS  C.  SK1DMORE 
SALT  LAKE  CITY.  UT 

Up  until  May  1990,  COMPUTE 
published  four  separate  maga- 
zines: COMPUTE!,  COM- 
PUTEl's  PC  Magazine,  COM- 
PUTEI's  Gazette,  and  Amiga 
Resource.  COMPUTEI's  PC 
Magazine,  along  with  the  oth- 
ers, was  "folded  Into"  COM- 
PUTE when  COMPUTE  Publi- 
cations was  purchased  by  Gen- 
eral Media.  COMPUTEI's  PC 
was  a  bimonthly  magazine- 
disk  combination. 

For  any  past  issue  of  COM- 
PUTEI's PC  (including  disk), 
send  an  $8  check  or  money  or- 
der payable  to  COMPUTE. 
The  address  is  COMPUTE  Sin- 
gle Copy  Sates,  324  West 
Wendover  Avenue,  Suite  200, 
Greensboro,  North  Carolina 
27408.  Specify  that  you  want 
the  January  1990  COM- 
PUTEI's PC  and  disk. 


Readers  whose  tetters  appear 
in  "Feedback"  will  receive  a 
free  COMPUTES  PC  clock  ra- 
dio while  supplies  last.  Do 
you  have  a  question  about 
hardware  or  software?  Or 
have  you  discovered  some- 
thing that  could  help  other  PC 
users?  If  so,  we  want  to  hear 
from  you.  Write  to  COM- 
PUTE'S Feedback,  324  West 
Wendover  Avenue,  Suite  200, 
Greensboro,  North  Carolina 
27408.  We  regret  that  we  can- 
not provide  personal  replies 
to  technical  questions.         O 


16         COMPUTE 


EDITORtAL 

Editor  In  Chief  Pelei  Scisco 

Art  OlreclDr  Robin  C  Case 

Executive  Editor  Clifton  Karnas 

Senior  Editor  Emeritus  Keitti  Fefrell 

Managing  Editor  David  tiensley  Jr. 

FesttJres  Editor  F^bert  Bixby 

Associate  Editor  David  Engiisti 

Editor,  Gazette  Tom  Nelsel 

Associate  Editor,  Denny  Atkin 

Amiga  Resource 

Reviews  Editor 

Assistant  Editors 


Copy  Editors 

Editorial  Assistant 
Interna 


Mtks  Hudnall 
M  Cnampion 
David  Sears 
Karen  Huffman 
Susan  Thompson 
Kandi  Sykes 
Ciiantefle  OligschlaegGr 
Efin  Rtchler 


ART 
Assistant  Art  Director    Kcnnclh  A.  hlardy 
Designer    Jo  6oykjn 
Typesetter    Terry  Cash 
PRODUCTION 
Production  Manager     De  Potter 

Tratfic  Manager    Barbara  A.  Wiiliains 
PROGRAMMING 
Programming  Manager    Riciiard  C  Leineclter 
Programnwrs    Bruce  Bcwdsn 
Steve  Draper 
Troy  Tucker 
ADMINISTRATION 
President     Kaliiy  KeetOfl 
Executive  Vice  President,    William  Tynan 
Operations 
OHIce  Manager    Sybil  Agee 
Sr,  Administrative  Assistant,    Julia  Fleming 
Customer  Service 
Administrative  Assistant 
Receptionist 


Elireda  Chavis 
Cynthia  Giles 
ADVERTISING 
Vice  President,    l^ter  T  Jotinsmeyor 
(212MW-B100 
James  B.  Martise 


Associate  Publisher 

Vice  President, 

Sales  Development 

Marlcetlng  Manager 


Caroline  Hanfon 
(919)  275.ge09 
ADVERTISING  SALES  OFFICES 

East  Coasi:  FulH^ge  and  Standard  Display  Ads— Peter  T  Jolins- 
meyer.  Chris  Coelho.  COMPUTE  Publications  International  Ud,. 
1965  Broadway.  New  Vork.  NY  10023;  (212)  49fr«10Q-  l>tew  Eng- 
land— Jack  Garlend.  Garland  Associates.  Inc .  ID  Industrial 
Park  Rd..  Hingham,  MA  02043.  (617)  749-5852.  East  Coast  and 
Midvrfest:  Fractional  an<l  ProOuct  Mart  Ads — Caro  ine  Hanion. 
Product  Mart  Manager;  COMPUTE  Publications  International 
Ltd..  324  W.  Wendover  Ave  ,  Suile  20O.  Gieensboro,  HC  ZTAOS: 
1919)  275-9609  Soolheaslern  Accis  Mgr:  Fu!l-F^ge.  Standard 
Display,  and  Mail-Ofdar  Ads— Harriet  f^igers,  1726  K  St  NW. 
Suile  903.  Wasnington,  DC.  20006.  (202)  728-0320.  Florlda- 
J.  M  Remer  Associates,  3300  NE  192nd  St..  Suite  192.  Aven- 
lura.  FL  331E0;  (305)  933-1467.  (305)  933-B302  (FAX).  MidwesI: 

Full-Page  and  Standard  Display  Ads— Siatr  Lane,  t4altonal  Ac- 
counts Manager;   1025  Crescent  Blvd  ,  tSlen  Ellyn.  IL  60137; 
(708)  790-0171.  Northwest— Jerry  Thompson.  Jules  E.  Th- 
ompson Co..  1290  Howard  Ave  ,  Suite  303,  Burlingame,  CA 
94010;  (415)  348-8222  John  Taggarl,  (415)  547-4102.  Lucille 
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Ave,  Canoga  Park.  CA  31303;  (818)  992-4777  West  Coast:  Erac- 
tjonal  Matl-Order.  Sharewate,  and  Produci  Mart  ASs— Lucille  Den- 
nis. Jules  E.  Thompson  Co  ,  1290  Howard  Ave..  Suite  303, 
Burlingame.  CA  34010;  (707)  461-6209.  UK  &  Europe— Bever- 
ly Watdale.  14  Lisgar  Terr..  London  W14.  England:  01 1-441-602- 
329a.  Japan — Intergroup  Communications,  Ltd.;  Jiro  Semba. 
President;  3F  T[ger  Bldg  5-22  Shiba-Koan.  3-Choine.  Minato- 
ku.  Tokyo  105,  Japan.  03-434-2607,  Classilied  Ads— Sharon 
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Broadway.  New  York,  NV  10023.  (212)  724-0911. 
THE  CORPORATION 
Bob  Gucclone  (chairman) 
Kathy  Keeton  (vice-chairman) 
David  J.  Myerson  [chief  operaling  ofiicer) 
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William  F.  Marlieb  (presideni,  markeling  &  advertsing  sales) 
John  Evans  (presideni,  loreign  editions) 
Patrick  J  Gavin  (vice  president,  chief  financial  office:) 
ADVERTISING  AND  MARKETING 
Sr.    VP/Corp     Dir .    New    Business   Development;    Beverly 
Wardale.  VP/Dir ,  Group  Advertising  Sales:  Nancy  Kesienbaum; 
Sr,  VP/Soulhern  and  f^idvvest  Advertising  Dir ;  Peter  Goldsmith 
OlHoes:  New  York:  1965  Broadway,  New  York   NY  10023- 
5965.  Te'.  (212)496-6100,  Telex  2371 26,  MidweSI:  333  N,  Michi- 
gan Ave,  Suite  1810.  Chicago.  IL  60601,  Tel.  (312)  346-9393. 
South:  1725  K  St.  NW.  Suite  903.  Washington.  DC  20006,  Tel. 
(202)  728-0320.  West  Coast  6726  Elon  Ave.,  Cancga  Park,  CA 
91303,  Tel.  (B18)  932-4777  UK  and  Europe:  14  Lisgar  Terrace. 
London  W14.  England.  Tel.  01-828-3336   Japan    Intergroup 
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K32144Kayaad 

ADMINISTRATION 
VP/Finance.  CFO:  Patrick  J.  Gavin,  Sr.  VP/Administrative  Serv- 
ices: Jeri  Winston:  Sr.  VP/Ari  &  Graphics:  Frank  Devino;  VP/ 
New^tand  Circulation:  Marcia  Orovitz:  VP/Dlrector  ot  New  Mag- 
azine Developrr,ent:  Ffena  Cherry;  VP  Director  Sales  FYomotions: 
Beverly  Greiper;  VP  Produciion:  Hal  Halpner;  Dir  Newsstand  Cir- 
culation: Paul  Roinick:  Dir.  Newsstand  Circulalion  Distribution: 
Charles  Anderson,  Jr.,  Dir.  Subscription  Circulation:  Marcia 
Schultz;  Director  of  Research  Ftobert  Ptatlner;  Advertising  Pro- 
duction  Director:  Charlene  Smith,  Advertising  Production  Traf- 
fic Mgr.  Mark  v^illiams;  Tralfic  Dir.  William  Harbutt:  Production 
Mgr.;  Tcxn  Stinson:  Assl.  Prodjction  Mgr:  Nancy  Rice,  Foreign 
Editiorts  Mgr,:  Michael  Stevers;  Exec.  Assl.  to  Bob  Guccione: 
Diane  O'Connell;  Exec.  Assl.  to  David  J.  Myerson:  Tefl  Psani; 
Special  Assl.  to  Bob  (Succione:  Jane  Homlifih. 


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Education  can  be  a 
powerful  thing. 
Use  your  computer  as 
o  doorway  to 
knowledge — online. 


8RAIN 

WAVES 


BY  SHERRY  ROBERTS 

p       e've  tieard  thiat  the  computer 
1  |f      is  an  educational  tool  for  so 
^*       many  years  that  it's  almost  a 

clictie.  But  thie  next  generation 
of  education  programs — called  online 
education  or  computer-based  distance 
learning — is  anything  but  dull  and  hack- 
neyed. This  is  education  on  the  brink — 
technology  tapped  and  tiarnessed  to 
bring  learning  to  people  who  are  too 
busy  to  attend  traditional  school  or 
who  don't  have  access  to  convention- 
al campus  environments. 

For  example,  an  American  soldier 
enrolled  in  an  online  college  course  at 
NOVA  University  in  Florida  continued 
to  file  assignments  and  attend  elec- 
tronic classrooms  via  his  computer 
while  stationed  in  the  Persian  Gulf. 

"The  whole  goal  is  to  reach  as 
many  people  as  possible  with  quality 
instruction,"  says  Margaret  Morabito, 
founder  of  the  Computer-Assisted 
Learning  Center  (CALC),  which  offers 
continuing  education,  self-enrichment, 
and  college-level  courses  for  long- 
distance students  of  all  ages  on  the 
online  service  GEnie.  "There  are  so 
many  barriers  to  learning  in  the  offline 
world.  Online  is  an  excellent  medium 
for  overcoming  those  barriers." 

In  the  offline  world,  there  are  busi- 
nesses with  inflexible  hours,  jobs  with 
strenuous  travel  demands,  and  chil- 
dren that  require  babysitters.  For  the 
handicapped,  the  offline  campus  may 
be  a  chore  to  navigate.  For  students 
living  in  out-of-the-way  locales — a 
ranch  in  the  Australian  outback  or  a 
small  burg  in  Alaska — the  offline  cam- 
pus may  be  hundreds  of  miles  away 

Although  online  education  appeals 
to  a  broad  spectrum  of  people,  from 
elementary  students  to  senior  adults, 


19 


the  greatest  growth  in  this  area  has 
been  undergraduate  and  graduate  conn- 
puter-based  degree  programs  for  wori<- 
ing  men  and  women. 

Now  a  Fortune  500  executive  can  fin- 
ish her  doctoral  degree  without  ever  set- 
ting foot  in  a  classroom;  she  can  do 
her  homework  between  business  meet- 
ings or  on  a  flight  to  Japan;  she  can  at- 
tend class  from  a  hotel  room  half  a 
world  away — as  long  as  she  packed 
her  computer  and  modem. 

Online  education  can  be  as  unstruc- 
tured as  someone  putting  out  a  call  for 
help  with  homework  on  CompuServe's 
Student  Forum  or  as  rigid  as  one  of  the 
curriculum-based  degree  programs  of- 
fered by  schools  such  as  the  Universi- 
ty of  Phoenix,  NOVA  University,  or  the 
New  York  Institute  of  Technology. 

The  whole  concept  of  computer- 
based  distance  learning  is  so  new 
that  everyone  involved  is  a  pioneer.  No 
two  educational  institutions  have  organ- 
ized their  programs  the  same  way.  The 
only  common  denominator  is  the  use 
of  computer  and  modem. 

CALC,  for  example,  requires  stu- 
dents to  attend  something  called  real- 
time classrooms.  Unless  a  student  has 
a  medical  or  technical  excuse,  the  stu- 
dent is  expected  to  meet  with  the  In- 
structor and  other  students  online  at  an 
assigned  time.  The  University  of  Phoe- 
nix, on  the  other  hand,  does  not  re- 
quire online  students  to  log  on  for  a  spe- 
cific class;  students  log  on  and  off  at 
their  convenience  to  retrieve  assign- 
ments, turn  in  homework,  and  confer 
with  the  teacher  or  other  students. 

NOVA  University  teams  teleconfer- 
encing in  the  electronic  classroom 
with  videotapes  of  live  classrooms  and 
attendance  at  on-campus  institutes. 

The  cost  of  CALC  courses  ranges 
from  free  to  $40,  pius  connect  time  at 
$6  an  hour.  Tuition  for  online  courses  of- 
fered by  accredited  universities  ranges 
from  $100  to  S250  per  credit  hour. 
Some  programs  charge  an  additional 
communications  fee,  which  covers 
course  and  access  setup  and  online 
hours;  others  allow  students  to  pur- 
chase blocks  of  online  hours. 

School  supplies  are  high-tech  but  ba- 
sic: a  computer  (any  kind),  a  modem, 
and  telecommunications  software,  usu- 
ally provided  by  the  school.  Online 
courses  also  require  textbooks  just 
like  their  campus  counterparts. 

On  Your  Schedule 

Flexibility — the  ability  to  attend  class 
wherever  and  whenever  they  wish — is 
the  main  reason  students  enroll  in  on- 
line degree  programs. 

Lorraine  Wright,  an  internal  auditor 
for  AT  &  T  in  Atlanta,  Georgia,  says 
the  online  program  of  the  University  of 

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No  mystery:  you  can  always  find  Carmen 
Sandiego  on  Prodigy,  teactiing  geograptiy. 

Phoenix  was  the  only  way  to  get  her 
master's  degree  in  business  administra- 
tion. "My  job  requires  50  to  80  percent 
travel,  but  now  that  I  have  a  laptop,  I 
can  go  to  school.  There's  no  way  I 
could  make  the  ti'aditional  classroom 
setting." 

When  Wright  first  heard  about  com- 
puter-based learning  from  a  coworker, 
she  had  her  doubts  about  the  quality 
and  the  serious  intention  of  such  pro- 
grams. She  quickly  learned,  though, 
that  online  learning  is  no  easy  cruise. 

She  estimates  she  spends  15-20 
hours  a  week  studying  offline — five 
hours  of  reading  each  weekend  and 
12-13  hours  of  work  on  two  papers 
due  each  week.  The  first  six  weeks  of 
class,  she  downloaded  500  pages  of 
class  material  and  student  comments. 
"Because  of  the  communication 
mode,  I  think  you  spend  more  hours 


per  week  on  classwork  [than  in  the  tra- 
ditional classroom  course],"  Wright 
says.  "But  that  Is  the  price  you  pay  for 
flexibility." 

Students  also  choose  online  courses 
because  of  the  diversity  of  their  class- 
mates. The  computer  has  facilitated 
the  creation  of  truly  global  classrooms 
where  students  from  Singapore  study 
with  students  from  Seattle  and  the  stu- 
dent in  the  electronic  desk  next  to  you 
could  be  an  airplane  pilot,  a  CEO,  or  a 
retired  schoolteacher. 

"I  like  the  networking  with  class- 
mates," Wright  says.  "I've  met  people 
in  my  class  from  all  over  the  United 
States  from  different  companies  and 
backgrounds.  If  I  were  in  any  of  their 
towns,  I'd  feel  comfortable  enough  to 
call  them  up  and  visit  with  them." 

Students  and  teachers  alike  say 
there  is  a  noticeable  lack  of  shyness  in 
electronic  classrooms.  "It  is  a  very  lib- 
erating and  democratic  environment," 
explains  Tom  Bishop,  director  of  mar- 
keting for  the  University  of  Phoenix  On- 
line program.  The  university,  which  has 
13  campuses  throughout  the  South- 
west, began  offering  computer-based 
degree  programs  in  1989. 

"It  is  the  content  of  the  student's  con- 
tributions that  is  important,"  Bishop 
says,  "not  the  student's  physical  char- 
acteristics." 

CALC's  Morabito  agrees,  "When 
you're  online,  you  don't  have  the  phys- 
ical presence,  the  facade  that  you 
must  put  on.  No  one  knows  that  you 
didn't  dress  up  to  come  to  class  or 
that  you're  handicapped  and  in  a  wheel- 
chair or  what  kind  of  car  you  drive. 
Everyone  is  treated  on  the  same  basis, 
and  it  opens  people  up." 

As  computer-based  education  has 
developed,  participants  have  noticed  in- 
direct benefits;  students  report  a  dra- 
matic increase  in  communications  and 
analytical  thinking  skills.  The  logistics 
of  attending  class  via  computer  discour- 
ages rambling  monologues  (on  the 
part  of  either  student  or  teacher)  and 
eliminates  the  potential  for  off-the-cuff 
answers. 

Dr,  Edward  A.  Becker,  director  of 
Graduate  Accounting  Programs  at  NO- 
VA University,  describes  four  commu- 
nication skills:  reading,  writing,  speak- 
ing, and  listening.  He  theorizes  that  to- 
day's highly  technological  and  com- 
plex work  environment  requires  a  fifth 
communication  skill:  computer  literacy. 

Students  taking  computer-based 
courses,  by  necessity,  learn  how  to 
use  a  computer.  Few  of  them  are  hack- 
ers. Often  they  turn  to  their  teacher  or 
fellow  students  for  help  when  technol- 
ogy is  about  to  get  the  better  of  them. 
Schools  provide  students  with  support 
while  they  learn  the  basics  of  comput- 


FOR  WRITERS, 
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Writing  Sample  as  Formatted 
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<1  >  Literature  professors  are  caught  up  in 
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Elaine  C.  Thiesmeyer 
Rochester  Instilute  o/  Technoiog>' 
John  E.  TTiiesmeyer 
Hoburt  and  William  Smith  Colleges 


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Editor's  Analysis  of  Writing  Sample 

FIX 

<2>  fias  past 

POSSIBLE  COUmU  PHRASE  MISSPELLED;  -passed"?  [m] 
<2>  it's 

POOR  USAGE;  contraction  or  misspelled  possessive  [U] 
<2>  alot 

SPELLING  ERROR;  and  note  ttiat  "a  lof  Is  informal  [1]  [s] 
<2>". 

MISPLACED  QUOTATION  MARKS  [ql 

TIGHTEN 
<3>  each  and  every 

TAUTOLOGY  [Tj 
<3>  conscious  awareness 

TAUTOLOGY  [T] 
<4>  in  ttie  case  of 

WORDY  PHRASE  [W] 

POLISH 
<1>  practises 

NONSTANDARD  SPELLING  [n| 
<4>  Itiis  is 

POSSIBLE  VAGUE  DICTION;  can  you  clar 
<4>  to  say  the  least  '^ 

OVERWORKED  OR  TRITE  PyRASE 

CONSIDER 
<1>  historical 

COMMONLY-IS 
<2>  critical  ^ 

COMMONLY  MISUSED  TERM;  "cmciar?  [^ 
<4>  more  completely 

POSSIBLE  ILLOGICAL  EXPRESSION  [X] 


■  Editor  has  four  usage  dictio- 
tmes:  FIX,  TIGHTEN, 
POLISH,  and  CONSIDER - 
Man)'  users  run  FIX  jirsi , 
since  it  catches  the  most 
egre^ous  errors. 


Braciteteci  codes  refer  tisers  lo 
online  Iielp  and  to  samples  in 
the  rwnud. 


Writers  who  /md  diat  Editor 
flags  a  term  they  always  list' 
correctly  may  delete  that 
term  from  Editor'^  lua^e 
dicrinnaries.  A  scholar  who 
o/ten  iwites  about  aiiical 
theory,  far  instance,  may 
want  [0  remote  the  term 
"aided"  from  the 
CO.VSIDER  dictionary: 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  160 


PHONE  OB 
OLTSIDEl 


^9l5^n  5-7447 
(919)515-2682 

Please  make  checks 
paydile  to  TASL; 
Itnciude  ihifping 
'charges.  Said  to 
TASL,  Box  8202, 
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^NC  27695-8202.     ., 

USANDCANAD; 
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OUTSIDE  US  AND 
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er  use — from  how  to  log  on  to  the 
school's  system  to  how  to  get  a  tran- 
script of  last  week's  session  from  the 
school's  library. 

The  Price  for  Flexibility 

The  most  commonly  heard  complaint 
about  online  education  is  the  lack  of 
the  "warm  fuzzy  factor"  and  face-to- 
face  interaction.  Participants  miss  the 
human  touch  and  sometimes  dislike 
dealing  with  an  inanimate  object. 

Schools  say  they  make  a  special  ef- 
fort to  maintain  contact  with  students  in 
online  programs  so  that  they  feel  nei- 
ther stranded  nor  isolated.  When  stu- 
dents yearn  for  the  sound  of  the  hu- 
man voice,  they  frequently  pick  up  the 
telephone  and  call  classmates  and 
teachers.  Several  members  of  a  Univer- 
sity of  Phoenix  study  group  that  live  in 
New  England  drove  to  a  mutually  con- 
venient location  for  a  get-together. 

"It  is  much  warmer  and  more  human 
than  most  people  would  expect,"  Bish- 
op says.  "Humor  comes  through  even 
in  the  typewritten  word." 

NOVA  University  solves  the  problem 
by  integrating  into  its  programs  chanc- 
es for  students  to  meet  their  online 
classmates  and  mentors  in  person'  NO- 
VA requires  master's  and  doctoral  stu- 
dents to  attend  either  week-long  insti- 
tutes or  weekend  seminars  in  Fort  Lau- 
derdale, Florida.  NOVA  students  and 
teachers  also  rub  elbows  at  symposia 
held  every  three  months  at  regional 
sites,  such  as  Phoenix,  Cincinnati,  At- 
lantic City  and  Jacksonville. 

Degrees  of  Value 

The  New  York  Institute  of  Technology 
started  the  American  Open  University, 
its  computer-based  distance  learning 
program,  eight  years  ago.  Dr.  Ward 
Deutschman,  director  of  the  American 
Open  University,  says  today  the  pro- 
gram is  "clearly  a  success." 

He  says  his  online  programs  have  on- 
ly a  10-15  percent  attrition  rate  as  com- 
pared to  the  50-80  percent  attrition 
rate  ordinarily  found  in  traditional  dis- 
tance learning  programs  or  correspon- 
dence courses. 

Interaction  is  the  element  that 
makes  online  learning  more  than  a  mod- 
ern day  correspondence  course.  "We 
have  found  that  connectivity  between 
student  and  faculty  the  fact  that  a  stu- 
dent can  get  a  response  to  his  ques- 
tion in  a  day  or  two  and  that  he  is  ex- 
pected to  interact  online,  makes  a  dif- 
ference," Deutschman  says. 

Even  if  the  computer  does  help 
keep  some  students  in  school,  so  to 
speak,  is  it  all  for  naught?  Are  degrees 
earned  via  computer  considered  as  val- 
uable as  those  earned  on  campus? 

Deutschman  admits  that  the  tradition- 

22        COMPUTE 


al  world  of  academia  has  yet  to  wel- 
come computer-based  education  with 
open  arms. 

"Some  institutions  that  haven't  been 
involved  with  distance  education  look 
at  anything  different  with  a  jaundiced 
eye,"  Deutschman  says.  "The  plus 
side  of  this  is  that  institutions  offering 
distance  learning  are  really  attending 
to  the  quality  of  instruction  they  are  giv- 
ing. Tfiey  are  investing  enormous 
amounts  of  time  and  effort  into  ensur- 


ing that  their  quality  of  education  is  scru- 
pulously maintained." 

Frequently  schools  defend  the  qual- 
ity of  instruction  in  their  online  pro- 
grams by  using  the  same  faculty  to 
teach  both  campus  and  online  cours- 
es. Or  schools  hire  experts  in  their 
fields  to  teach  particular  online  cours- 
es. NOVA  University  has  the  invest- 
ment director  for  Travelers  Insurance 
and  an  expert  from  the  Internal  Reve- 
nue Service  on  its  accounting  faculty. 


ONLINE  WITH  THREE  UNIVERSITIES 


Working  adults  make  up  the  majority  of 
online  students  for  a  simple  reason: 
They're  always  working. 

The  purpose  of  online  education  is  to 
improve  access  to  learning  for  people 
who  can't  attend  traditional  classrooms 
because  of  their  jobs  or  other  circum- 
stances. Here  are  three  academic  insti- 
tutions whose  online  programs  are  all  di- 
rected to  adults. 

University  of  Phoenix 

The  University  of  Phoenix  Online  pro- 
gram not  only  requires  all  students  to  be 
"working  adults"  but  insists  that  all  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty  be  working  profession- 
als in  their  fields  of  expertise. 

Incorporated  in  1976  in  Arizona,  the 
university  has  13  campuses  and  learning 
centers  in  Arizona,  California,  Colorado, 
New  fvlexico,  Utah,  and  Puerto  Rico.  It  is 
accredited  by  the  North  Central  Associ- 
ation of  Colleges  and  Schools, 

The  university  started  its  Online  pro- 
gram in  1989  and  has  340  students.  De- 
grees that  can  be  earned  through  Online 
include  a  bachelor's  degree  in  business 
administration,  a  master's  in  organization- 
al management,  and  a  master's  in  busi- 
ness administration. 

Oniine's  electronic  classroom  is  open 
24  hours  a  day,  seven  days  a  week,  allow- 
ing students  to  control  the  time  and 
place  of  their  individual  participation.  Stu- 
dents go  online  at  their  convenience  to 
retrieve  assignments,  turn  in  or  upload 
homework,  and  participate  in  class  dis- 
cussions. 

Programs  are  built  upon  the  experi- 
ences of  the  working  professional  so  stu- 
dents can  apply  what  they  learn  as  they 
learn  it.  Frequently,  papers  and  projects 
must  relate  to  the  student's  own 
workplace. 

"We  find  that  adults  demand  that  the 
education  they  are  consuming  have  im- 
mediate relevancy,"  says  Tom  Bishop, 
the  university's  director  of  marketing.  "It's 
not  just  a  hobby." 

American  Open  University 

American  Open  University  is  the  dis- 
tance learning  arm  of  the  New  York  In- 
stitute of  Technology  In  Central  Islip, 
New  York.  Six  hundred  students  from 
throughout  the  United  States,  Singapore, 
fvlalaysia,  and  Europe  are  pursuing  de- 
grees at  AOU  through  their  computers. 


AOU,  which  is  accredited  by  the  fvlid- 
dle  States  Association  of  Colleges  and 
Schools,  offers  Bachelor  of  Science  de- 
grees in  general  studies,  business  ad- 
ministration, and  behavioral  sciences.  It 
also  offers  a  Bachelor  of  Professional 
Studies  degree  in  general  studies. 

Students  receive  a  course  learning 
package  which  includes  a  textbook,  a  de- 
tailed syllabus,  and  assignments.  Home- 
work assignments  and  special  projects 
are  sent  in  by  the  student  through  the  com- 
puter. In  computer  conferences,  a  men- 
tor directs  the  learning  activities  just  as  an 
instructor  in  a  conventional  classroom 
does.  Students  can  read,  review,  and 
write  messages  to  the  instructor  and  oth- 
er students  through  the  computer. 

NOVA  University 

NOVA  University  liegan  offering  online  ed- 
ucation in  1983.  It  is  a  muttifaceted  pro- 
gram that  integrates  computer  confer- 
encing, videotapes,  and  the  traditional 
component:  the  face-to-face  classroom 
environment. 

Accredited  by  the  Commission  on 
Colleges  of  the  Southern  Association  of 
Colleges  and  Schools,  NOVA  has  300  on- 
line students.  The  university  offers  doc- 
toral degrees  in  information  systems,  in- 
formation science,  computer  education, 
and  training  and  learning.  It  also  offers  a 
master's  in  computer-based  learning. 

Students  also  may  lake  some  account- 
ing courses  online.  By  the  end  of  1992, 
NOVA  expects  to  be  able  to  offer  online 
an  entire  master's  degree  in  accounting. 

NOVA  has  perhaps  the  greatest  va- 
riety in  its  delivery  system.  NOVA  stu- 
dents not  only  are  expected  to  spend  a 
great  deal  of  their  time  on  computer,  ei- 
ther in  realtime  electronic  class  or  send- 
ing in  homework  electronically,  but  they 
also  use  videotapes  of  actual  classroom 
sessions  filmed  on  NOVA's  campus  In 
Fort  Lauderdale,  Florida. 

Concerned  that  students  might  miss 
the  human  contact  ol  classroom-based 
education,  NOVA  requires  attendance  at 
two  week-long  institutes  or  weekend  sem- 
inars held  on  campus.  The  university  al- 
so offers  symposia  at  four  sites  through- 
out the  country  to  share  in  person  the  lat- 
est research  on  that  term's  topic,  to  en- 
courage students  to  share  their  own  re- 
search, and  to  provide  face-to-face  an- 
swers to  students'  questions. 


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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  140 


FROM  HOME  SCHOOLING  TO  HELP  WITH  HOMEWORK 


Every  Monday  night  at  8:00  12-year-old 
Danny  Brumleve  switches  on  his  comput- 
er and  goes  to  school.  This  session  he 
is  taking  a  course  on  C  programming 
fronn  the  Computer-Assisted  Learning 
Center  (CALC)  on  GEnie.  Last  session 
he  aced  English  203,  also  from  CALC, 

Danny's  mother,  Dorothy,  describes 
her  son  as  "very  bright,  severely  gifted," 
Last  year  she  decided  to  remove  Danny 
from  private  school  and  try  a  year  of 
home  schooling  while  he  awaits  accep- 
tance into  a  special  high  school.  She  or- 
ganized tutors,  arranged  a  Latin  course 
for  Danny,  and  browsed  through  GEnie. 

Dorothy  Brumleve,  a  computer  pro- 
grammer, considers  the  CALC  courses 
a  valid  part  of  Danny's  curriculum,  "I 
think  it's  a  unique  opportunity.  He's  too 
young  to  enter  junior  college,  yet  he's  tak- 
ing comparable  courses  on  CALC." 
CALC  offers  courses  that  can  earn  col- 
lege credit  from  Edison  State  College. 

Danny  says  the  courses  are  fun.  And 
the  Urbana,  Illinois,  ninth  grader  says,  "I 
learn  a  lot  more  this  way" 

Dorothy  Brumleve  is  quite  satisfied 
with  online  education  and  proud  of  her 
son,  "It  attracts  a  different  audience,  a  stu- 
dent that  really  wants  to  learn,  a  student 
that's  not  there  for  the  party.  Because 
there  isn't  a  party.  The  student  has  to  be 
nnotivated  to  keep  up  when  he  doesn't 
have  the  daily  contact  with  a  teacher." 

Home  schooling  information  also  is 
found  in  one  of  CompuServe's  240  fo- 
rums: the  Education  F^orum. 

Although  CompuServe  does  not  offer 
curriculum-based  online  classrooms,  it  is 
a  source  for  online  students  to  get  help 
with  their  homework.  The  CompuServe 
Information  Service,  which  was  intro- 
duced in  1979,  offers  members  access 
to  1400  databases,  including  Peterson's 


College  Guide  to  accredited  or  ap- 
proved U.S,  and  Canadian  colleges,  as 
well  as  Grolier's  Academic  American 
Encyclopedia,  a  reference  source  updat- 
ed four  times  a  year. 

CompuServe's  Science/fvfath  Educa- 
tion Forum  has  a  data  library  with  prac- 
tice problems  to  help  students  study  for 
college  board  examinations.  The  Stu- 
dents' Forum  is  where  it's  happening  for 
middle  schoolers:  junior  high  students  ex- 
change ideas  with  teachers  and  other  stu- 
dents and  receive  homework  assistance. 

With  800,000  CompuServe  members 
worldwide,  the  potential  for  help  is  limit- 
less. As  Debra  Pedersen  Young  of  Com- 
puServe says,  "Who  knows  who  is  going 
to  answer  your  question?  It  could  be 
someone  in  the  tJ.K.  or  someone  next 
door." 

Homiework  help  is  also  available,  and 
independent  study  is  encouraged  on  the. 
Prodigy  network.  Although  it,  like  Com- 
puServe, doesn't  offer  curriculum- 
based  programs.  Prodigy  features  online 
learning  situations.  Besides  gathering  in- 
formation through  Prodigy's  reference  da- 
tabases and  posting  calls  for  help  on  its 
bulletin  boards,  students  could  supple- 
ment their  studies  with  features  from  old 
favorites  such  as  National  Geographic 
and  Weekly  Reader. 

America  Online  also  boasts  a  number 
of  homework  options,  including  regular- 
ly scheduled  homework  sessions  each 
weeknight,  private  tutoring,  boards  on 
developing  study  skills,  an  Exam  Prep 
Center  with  tips  for  taking  exams,  and  an 
exam  exchange  where  students  and 
teachers  can  upload  and  download  ex- 
ams to  use  or  practice  with.  There  are 
many  other  options  currently  online  or  in 
development  intended  to  assist  students 
and  make  learning  fun. 


Thie  University  of  Pinoenix  requires  thiat 
its  instructors  not  only  tnave  tine  appro- 
priate academic  accreditation  but  be 
currently  practicing  professionals  in 
their  fields. 

Tlie  other  attack  on  legitimacy 
comes  from  critics  who  question  (now 
tfiose  who  administer  online  programs 
know  who's  doing  the  homework  and, 
ultimately,  earning  the  degree,  fvlany 
schools  require  online  students  to 
take  midterm  and  final  examinations  in 
the  presence  of  a  proctor  who  has 
been  approved  by  the  school.  Or,  as  in 
the  case  of  NOVA,  they  actually  re- 
quire the  student  to  show  up  on  cam- 
pus for  brief  but  important  seminars 
and  institutes. 

There  is  a  feeling  among  those  in- 
volved with  online  education  that  spe- 
cial recognition  ought  to  be  given  to 
those  who  earn  a  degree  via  comput- 
er. Take  a  look  at  the  online  student, 
says  Deutschman:  The  person  has  to 

24        COMPUTE 


be  self-disciplined,  motivated,  and 
able  to  work  without  a  support  group. 
"If  [people]  can  be  successful  in  dis- 
tance learning,  then  you  know  they've 
got  something,"  Deutschman  says. 
In  fact.  Bishop  predicts  online  de- 


grees will  become  increasingly  valua- 
ble as  employers  gain  experience  with 
online  graduates.  "The  development  of 
analytical  skills,  as  a  result  of  the  me- 
dium, changes  the  way  people  can  con- 
duct themselves  in  the  workplace,  Em- 
ployers are  going  to  be  very  pleased  in 
the  kind  of  results  they  get  with  people 
in  this  program." 

The  Quality  Goes  In 

Educators  running  online  programs 
know  that  such  programs  will  never  re- 
place traditional  classroom  learning. 
Online  education  is  seen  as  an  alterna- 
tive service  for  a  special  group. 

They  predict,  however,  that  technol- 
ogy-based education  will  have  an  Im- 
pact on  classroom-based  education. 
They  expect  it.  in  some  ways,  to  en- 
hance campus  learning. 

Campus  students,  Deutschman 
says,  may  pressure  schools  to  provide 
the  same  technological  access  to  teach- 
ers that  online  students  have.  Online  stu- 
dents typically  can  ask  their  professors 
a  question  via  modem  and  get  an  an- 
swer in  a  day  or  two,  while  the  campus 
student  with  a  question  is  at  the  whim 
of  his  schedule  and  his  professor's  of- 
fice hours. 

But  perhaps  the  greatest  success  of 
these  groundbreaking  education  pro- 
grams is  that  some  educators  have 
stopped  talking  about  computers  and 
begun  using  them.  At  last,  in  the  case 
of  online  education,  the  computer  has 
become  an  educational  tool  as  essen- 
tial as  pencil,  paper,  and  textbooks. 

As  Becker  says,  "We've  been  using 
lecture  techniques  to  teach  from  tie  be- 
ginning. Then,  when  Gutenberg  invent- 
ed the  pnnting  press,  we  began  using 
textbooks  and  lecture.  All  the  studies 
tell  us  that  there  are  more  ways  to 
teach  effectively — one  is  videotapes, 
and  one  is  computer. 

"Everybody  is  looking  at  [online  learn- 
ing], and  everybody  is  talking  about  it. 
The  future  is  wide  open;  we're  only  lim- 
ited by  our  imaginations."  □ 


SOURCES 


America  Online 

8619  Westwood  Center  Dr.,  Ste.  200 

Vienna,  VA  22182 

(703)  448-8700 

American  Open  University 
(New  York  Instflute  of  Technology) 
Colton  Ave.,  Bidg.  66,  Rm.  227 
Centra!  Istip,  NY  11722 
(800)  222-6948 

CompuServe 

5000  Arlington  Centre  Blvd. 
Columbus,  OH  43220 
(614)  457-8600 


NOVA  University 
3301  College  Ave. 
Ft.  Lauderdale,  FL  33314 
(800)  541-6682 

Prodigy 

445  Hamilton  Ave. 
White  Plains,  NY  10601 
(800)  776-3449 

University  of  Phoenix  Online 
101  Caiiiornia  St.,  Ste.  505 
San  Francisco,  CA  94111 
(415)  956-2121 


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works. 

Instead  of 
one  window  or 
ten,  imagine  up  to  64.000!  The  uses  are 
endles.s. 


INTO  SELECT  is  Ciiij- 
to  use  -  yi;l  piirterful. 


Are  you  forgetful? 

Were  you  bom  with  a  memory 
situated  squarely  on  the  tip  of  your 
tongue?  Do  you  forcct  things  like  which 
diiy  you  placed  an  order  or  important 
numbers?  If  you  an.'  forgeiful  you 
especially  need  INFO  SELECT  -  the 
software  that  remembers  almost 
everything  for  you. 

Thinking  tool 

Have  you  ever  worked  on  a  complex 
project  and  fell  lost.'  With  INFO 
SELF;CT  you'll  group,  scan,  and  cross 
search  through  all  your  noles  so  fast 
you']!  see  the  big  picture  in  seconds. 

Will  I  be  better  off  doing  this  now  or 
that  later?  Keeping  priorities  straight  can 
make  or  break  your  career  or  your 
business.  INFO  SELECT  lets  you  keep 
till  lop  of  what's  hot. 

.Should  you  use  an  east  or  west  coast 
supplier'.'  To  make  decisions  you  need 
I   facts-  Now  you  can  view  ihe  facts  any 
I   way  you  like...  as  fast  as  you  can  think, 
'   You'll  make  the  best  decisions  ever  - 
,    and  fewer  expensive  mistakes. 

The  #1  PiM 

What's  all  the  fuss 

about  PIMs  (Personal 

Information 

Mangers)? 

Simple -you 

pmbably  have 

more  RANDOM 

inlbrmation  Ihan 

any  other  type  and 

you  need  a  PIM  to 

properly  handle 

this  kind  of 

infonnalion,  Tho 
4:  J      *      right  P[M  will 
^y  -f        :      save  you  lime  and 

make  everything 

you  do  go 

smoothly. 

Whv  is  Info 

Select  the  ^ I  PIM? 

Because  Info  Select  i-S  based 

on  idea?!  you  can  identify 

with  -  like  stacks  of  paper. 

And  it's  free-form  too.  You 
won"i  waste  days  or  v^coks learning 
complex  struciiires.  Instead  you'll  be  up 
and  running  in  nijnuics.  Info  Select  also 
d(x.'N  more  and  costs  less  than  other  PlMs. 


Dt-ci'^iotis 


Owners- of  our  TORNADO  suliwaie  Isymboli^ed 

by  the  famous  "blue  lomodo")  can  tr^^  up  to  the 

secotid-gcncration  Info  Select  under  our  special 

offer.  Tliere  arc  over  lOii  iiii  prove  men  I'l. 

Feature  packed 

INFO  SHUiCT  is  nicni<(r\'  resident 
(if  you  choose),  .so  you  can  quickly  jump 
in  from  other  programs.  Info  Select 
windows  can  hoJii:  notes,  plans,  lists, 
facts,  lellcrs.  comacis,  and  much  more. 
You  can  search  for  a  window  or  a  group 
of  wintiows  related  by  a  word  or  phrase. 
There  arc  five  ways  to  see  oven'iews: 
hypertext,  a  fast  sort,  and  line  drawing. 
Save  lime  with  the  dialer,  dale  tickler: 
and  seafching  by  text  or  date  ranges. 

Info  Select  allows 
you  to:  add 
columns  of 
numbers;  store 
data  in  EMS;  use 
lemplale  or 
free-foim 
windows;  import 
and  export  files, 
scrL-cns,  and 
databases;  move, 
Join,  and  duplicate 
windows  and 
much  more. 


^'"^> 

1?^    •' 

,.  "i> 

i^^V 

imLi 


[f  you  have  rimes,  idtrj-in  turii^iLis 
ur  Dthcr  unurgani/cd  RANDOM 
information.  )du  need  infa  SclccL 


'Rarely  do  I 
recommend  b 
product  as 
whoteheartedly" 
David  Harve/, 
Comp-  Shopper 


'Beats  the  pants 
off  just  about 
everything  else." 
Jeffrey  Pafker. 
PCM 


Editor's  Choice 
'Rrst  rate' 
PC  Magazine 


LAN 
option 

The  new  LA.N  version  allows 
integrated  E-niail,  sharing  company 
rolodexes  and  distrihiiling  company 
policies.  You  can  shatie  any  kind  of 
infoimaiinii.  It's  yotir  first  step  into  the 
exciting  new  world  of  groupware!  Ask 
about  the  five  mnie  LAN  starter  pack. 

Easy  power 

Into  Select  is  easy  to  use  yet  offers; 
the  [:<iiveryou  need  with  infobases  up  lo 
!  I)  megabytes;  text  searche.s  up  to 
700kh/sec:  up  to  .12,IX)0  characters  per 
window;  and  up  to  64, OCX)  windows  per 
infobase.  Even  bctlcr.  Info  Select  can 
swap  down  to  as  little  as  7K  memory! 

TORNADO  owners 

INFO  SELKCr  is  based  on  the 
pioneering  TORNADO'"  software  PC 
World  called  "Rxcellent.  Excellent. 
E.\cellem.  Excellent"  and  PC  Magaj^ine 
awarded  Editor's  Choice  -  twice.  Call 
about  our  special  trade-up  offer. 


Endless 
uses 

Info  Select  can 
do  much  more  than  manage 
all  your  RANDOM 
infomiation,  U.se  it  lo 
manage  business  correspondence,  sales " 
leads,  orders,  and  client  notes.  Track 
facts,  plan  projects,  or  interrelate  all  your 
ideas.  You  can  catalogue  parts, 
documents.  ;md  invenloiy  items.  .Match 
buyers  and  scl  lers  or  doetois  and  patients. 
Setup  an  information  desk.  Edit  E-mail. 
Store  notes  on  tnaga/inc  articles, 
software  operation  techniques,  nr  just 
names  and  addresses.  Whether  you  are  a 
lawyer  tracking  court  cases  or  a  zoologist 
collecting  feeding  habits  you'll  find 
countless  uses  for  Info  Scilecl. 


info  Select  keeps  your  information  in  inteltigenl 
automalically  positioned  windows. 


Risk-Free  Guarantee 

info  Sek'ci  is  sQcffeciiv!.'  you  will  he 

iimarad.  Thill's  why  we  offer  nur 

montry  hai-'k  guiiramcc.  Try  It  for  30  days. 

tf  you  on:  [iot  fully  sali^tfKdi  acccpl  uur  full 

prompt  refund-  Could  any  offer  be  nwre 

fair? 


All  for  just 


New: 


$149.95!    Ver2  01 

INFO  SELECT  has  a  special  price  of 
jusl  5149.9.1  You  can  eien  tiy  it 
risk-free  with  a  30-day  money  back 
guarantee.  But  hurry  -  this  is  a  limited 
time  offer. 

Doesn't  ji  make  scn.sc  to  get  the 
software  package  that  can  open  up  a 
whole  new  world  of  important  uses  for 
your  computer'.'  Order  today.    Call 
toll-free: 

(800)342-5930 

...  and  get  ready  for  a  ni;w  dimension 
of  computing. 

Micrff^LS§iS 

POB  TO,  Dept.  901 

Hackensack,  NJ  07602 

(600)  3J2-5930  (201)  342-6518 

Fax:  (201)342-0370 


Makers  ol:  Tornado,  Info  Select, 
Key  Watch  &  Micro  Chans 


MAILORDERS:  Serai  nsnK.  address,  phone  number,  and  payment  by  check.  Visa,  or  MC  lo  address  shown.   Please  include  S.VSO  shipping  (S I J  oULside  continental  USA).  EUROPJEAN  CUSTOMERS: 
Cuntaci  Ailames  L.S.A.  (21B)  6S5-69S0.  IE4EK.MA81SS:  Trademaik  (owner):  Tornado.  InfoSclecl.  Key  Watch  (Micro  Losic).  IBM  PC,  XT,  AT.  PS/3 IIBM).    ©  I9W  Micro  Logic  Corii.  U.S.A. 


SHAREPAK 


Richard  C.  Leinecker 


Four 

programs  to 

entertain 

you  and  your 

family 

for  hours 


SEPTEMBER  PAKS 
IT  TO  THE  MAX 

Go  ahead;  spend  more  than  a 
hundred  dollars  for  four  pro- 
grams. But  if  you  want  real  val- 
ue, order  this  month's  Share- 
Pak.  it's  packed  with  four  pro- 
grams that  will  entertain  you 
and  your  family  for  hours. 

Here  at  COfvlPUTE,  we 
search  the  online  services  for 
high-quality  shareware,  which 
means  you  get  the  very  best 
without  having  to  take  the 
time  to  hunt  for  good  online  pro- 
grams yourself. 

If  you're  paying  connect 
time  or  long-distance  charges 
for  being  online,  those  costs 
can  add  up  quickly — another 
reason  why  COMPUTE's  Share- 
Pak  disk  is  such  a  bargain. 

As  a  subscriber,  you'll  get 
great  programs  every  month, 
selected  from  lists  of  hun- 
dreds. And  our  disks  come 
with  a  money-back  guarantee: 
If  you  don't  like  the  programs 
for  any  reason,  just  return  the 
disk  for  a  refund, 

ARGH  Version  3.0 

ARGH.  the  first  SharePak  pro- 
gram for  September,  is  a  col- 
lection of  sliding  block  puz- 
zles. How  hard  can  that  be? 

Well,  playing  is  actually 
easy:  You  just  run  the  game 
from  DOS  and  type  the  letter 
of  the  block  you  want  to 
move.  When  you  finish,  the 
program  sounds  a  beep,  alert- 
ing you  that  you've  success- 
fully completed  the  puzzle. 

Sounds  easy,  huh?  Sure, 
it's  easy  to  play,  but  it's  not  so 
easy  to  master.  Simple  as  it 
sounds,  the  idea  translates  in- 
to hours  of  fun. 

To  play  ARGH  version  3.0, 
you'll  need  256K  of  RAM, 
DOS  2.1  or  higher,  and  any 
type  of  monitor. 

Gapper 

Talk  about  a  game  that  will 
both  captivate  and  addict  its 


audience,  try  Gapper. 

There's  nothing  fancy 
about  this  game — arrow  keys 
move  you  around  while  you 
avoid  the  blob. 

Once  you've  captured  all 
the  rectangles  on  the  screen 
by  traversing  their  perimeters, 
you're  done  with  the  screen. 
But  count  on  this:  The  next 
screen  will  be  harder,  more 
challenging,  and  more  fun. 

Gapper's  CGA  graphics 
are  simple.  The  pieces  move 
smoothly,  and  control  is  grace- 
ful. A  high-score  feature  lets 
you  face  the  ultimate  chal- 
lenge: Can  I  beat  yesterday's 
score? 

To  play,  you'll  need  256K 
of  RAM,  DOS  2.1  or  higher, 
and  a  color  monitor. 

PRO  football  Picks 

Don't  you  hate  losing?  Well, 
it's  time  to  improve  your 
odds.  The  next  time  you  want 
to  pick  the  winning  team,  use 
this  fantastic  program. 

PRO  Football  P/cte'  author 
claims  a  60-percent  win  re- 
cord— not  bad  considering 
that  all  you  have  to  do  is  run 
the  program,  enter  the  week- 
ly statistics,  and  let  the  pro- 
gram make  the  picks. 

The  program  is  well- 
planned  and  easy  to  use,  Sim- 
ple keypresses  control  the 
menus,  and  mouse  support  is 
offered  for  all  menus  and  di- 
alog boxes,  And  you  don't 
have  to  be  a  propeller-head 
or  spend  hours  reading  a  man- 
ual to  use  it. 

Without  knowing  anything 
about  it,  I  made  my  selections 
in  five  minutes.  Did  I  win? 
With  magazine  lead  times  the 
way  they  are,  it's  now  early 
June,  but  you  can  be  sure  I'll 
find  out  in  September. 

For  this  game  you'll  need 
512K  of  RAM,  DOS  2,  lor  high- 
er, and  any  monitor. 

PRO-KRlBi 

Do  you  write  well?  Could  your 
prose  be  improved?  Some- 


times it's  just  plain  fun  to 
have  your  writing  style  ana- 
lyzed. Whatever  the  case, 
don't  consider  your  writing 
complete  until  you've  run  it 
through  this  full-featured  gram- 
mar-analysis program. 

PRO-SCRIBE  begins  by  re- 
viewing your  text  for  complex- 
ity. Your  writing  is  assigned  a 
grade  level,  and  you're 
shown  a  chart  that  graphical- 
ly illustrates  its  complexity. 
Your  writing  pattern  is  also  an- 
alyzed, and  you're  shown 
how  closely  it  corresponds  to 
PRO-SCRIBE'S  "idea!"  pat- 
tern. For  the  ultimate  in  refine- 
ment, you  can  do  a  line-by- 
line analysis  and  track  down 
lines  that  need  rewriting. 

PRO-SCRIBE  also  lists  the 
complex  words  you've  used, 
including  a  count  of  how 
many  times  you've  used 
each  word.  Synonyms  can  be 
listed  so  you  can  easily  find  a 
replacement  for  any  word 
you're  not  satisfied  with.  You 
can  even  add  jargon  to  PRO- 
SCRIBE'S  vocabulary  to  keep 
it  from  pointing  out  words  and 
expressions  it  doesn't  recog- 
nize that  are  specific  to  your 
audience. 

A  graphical  chart  with  your 
writing  statistics  lets  you  see 
the  big  picture.  It  includes  an 
overall  summary,  a  grade  lev- 
el and  Flesch  index,  personal 
sesquipedalian  words  (those 
with  many  syllables),  and  sta- 
tistics on  writing  style  ele- 
ments. That's  plenty  of  informa- 
tion for  you  to  assess  your 
text  and  make  changes  if  you 
desire. 

PRO-SCRIBE  should  be  wel- 
come, too,  for  any  profession- 
al writer.  It's  smaller  than  many 
similar  commercial  programs 
and  doesn't  require  an  exces- 
sive amount  of  disk  space,  yet 
it's  packed  with  all  the  features 
of  commercial  writing-analysis 
programs  and  more. 

To  run  PROSCRIBE,  you'll 
need  256K  of  RAM  and  any 
type  of  monitor.  □ 


26        COMPUTE 


With  CX>MPUTE's  SharePak,  You'll 


Share  in  the  Saviivis! 


SAVE  TIME — we  carefully  select  and  test  all 
programs  for  you 

SAVE  MONEY — each  disk  includes  two  to  five 
programs  for  one  low  price 

SAVE  KEYSTROKES— our  free  DOS  shell  lets  you 

bypass  the  DOS  command  line 


ARGH  Version  3.0 


PRO  Football  Picks 


PROSCRIBE 


Gapper 


COMPUTE'S  SharePak  disk  contains  tine  best  of 
shareware— handpicked  and  tested  by  our  staff— to  comple- 
ment this  month's  In  Focus  topic.  You'll  sample  entertainment, 
learning,  or  home  office  software  at  a  great  savings.  Each 
SharePak  disk  includes  two  to  five  programs  plus  complete 
documentation  for  one  low  price: 

$5.95  for  5V4-inch  disk 

$6.95  for  Syj-inch  disk 

For  even  more  savings, 
Subscribe  to  SharePak  and  receive 
COMPUTE'S  SuperShell  FREE! 

For  a  limited  time,  you  can  subscribe  to  COMPUTE'S  Share- 
Pak and  save  more  than  37%  off  the  regular  cost  of  the 
disks— plus  get  COMPUTE'S  SuperShell  FREE.  With  a  one- 
year  paid  subscription,  you'll  get 

•  A  new  3V2-  or  5y4-inch  disk  deli\'ered  to  your  home  every 
month 

•  Savings  of  over  37%  off  the  regular  disk  prices 

•  Advance  notices  of  COMPUTE  special  offers 

•  COMPUTE'S  SuperShell  at  no  additional  cost! 
Subscribe  for  a  year  at  the  special  rates  of  $59.95  for 
SV-i-inch  disks  and  $64.95  for  3V2-inch  disks — and  get 
COMPUTE'S  SuperShell  FREE! 

COMPUTES  SuperShell  requires  DOS  3.0  or  higliar. 

Disks  available  only  foi'  IBM  PC  and  compatibles.  Olfer  good  while  supplies  last. 


For  Single  Disks 

YES!  I  want  to  stiare  In  the  savings.  Send  me  the  September  1991  issue 
of  COMPUTE'S  SharePak  disk.  I  pay  $5.95  for  each  S'/i-inch  disk  and 
$6,95  for  each  aVi-lnch  disk  plus  S2.00  shipping  and  handling  per  disk. 

Please  Indicate  how  many  disks  of  eaeh  format  you'd  IIKer 

S'Annch  at  $5.95  each  3W-inch  at  S6.95  each 

SutJtotal 

Sales  Tax  (Residents  of  NC  and  NY,  please  add  appropriate  sales  tax  for 

your  area.  Canadian  orders,  add  7%  goods  and  services  tax.) 
Shipping  and  Handling  (SZOO  U.S.  and  Canada.  S3.0O  surface  malt,  $5.00  alf- 

mail  per  disk) 
Total  Enclosed 

Subscript  k>ns 

I  want  to  savG  even  more!  Start  my  one-year  subscription  to  COM- 
PUTE's  SharePak  right  away.  With  my  paid  subscription,  I'll 
get  a  FREE  copy  of  COMPUTE'S  SuperShell  plus  all  the  savings 
listed  at»ve. 

Please  Indicate  the  disk  size  desired: 

6y4-inch  at  159.95  per  year  S'Mmh  at  $64.95  per  year 

For  delivery  outside  the  U.S.  or  Canada,  add  $10.00  for  postage  and  handling. 


Name. 


Address. 
City 


State/Province . 
Total  Enclosed  . 


.  ZIP/Posta)  Ctrie . 


.  C3ieck  or  Money  Order 


MasterCard 


Credit  Card  No 

SignaKjre       _   

Daytime  Tetephcne  No. , 


.  VISA 

.  Exp.  Data  - 


Send  your  order  to  COMPUTE'S  SharePak.  324  Vifest  Wandover  Awenue,  Suite  200, 
Greenstwro,  North  Carolina  27408. 

AnordersmustbepadmU-S.  lundsbycrtwktjrawnonal  S  Dar^k  or  tjy  moMy  ordof  MaslwCafd  Of  VISA  aecepl- 
ed  rof  orders  over  S20.  Tnis  offer  vnl  t»  fried  onfy  at  tr»  a»we  address  and  is  n«  mada  m  cor^unction  wflfi  any  olher 
magazine  or  d,s3t  SLbscripbon  offer.  FNjase  allow  4.6  waeloitw  delivefy  ol  sngla  issues  or  tor  subscription  lo  be^n. 
Sorry,  bjt  retephone  orders  cannol  be  accepted. 

ftnportant  Notfce:  COMPUTES  ShsiePak  Is  not  assodaled  wHh  COMPUTES  PC  Disk.  Pteffie 
order  StiamPak  separately. 


COMPUTING  FOR  THE 
PHYSICALLY  CHALLENGED 


BREAKING 

COMMUNICATIONS 

BARRIERS 


BY  GAIL  DU^ON 


R 


emember  writing  term  papers?  It 
I  seemed  like  a  major  chore  in  high 
school  and  college.  Just  imagine  writ- 
king  one  blindfolded  or  without  touch- 
ing your  PC,  and  you'll  have  an  idea  of  what 
it's  like  for  blind  and  quadriplegic  students 
and  professionals.  Imagine  writing  it  in,  say, 
Chinese,  a  language  foreign  to  you,  and 
you'll  understand  the  challenge  aphasic  pa- 
tients— those  who've  lost  the  ability  to  use 
and  process  language — face  when  trying  to 
communicate  even  simple  requests. 

Fortunately  software  and  hardware  solu- 
tions are  available,  although  they  aren't  wide- 
ly known.  Often  the  solution  is  simply  a  mat- 
ter of  locating  the  right  pieces  and  integrat- 
ing them  into  a  computer. 

Scanning  and  Voice  Synthesis  for 

the  Visually  Impoired 

One  system  pieced  together  by  two  Yale  Uni- 
versity students  relies  upon  a  voice  synthe- 
sizer and  a  scanner  to  let  visually  impaired  stu- 
dents and  staff  have  full  access  to  the  infor- 
mation stored  in  Yale's  Sterling  Library 
{where  the  system  is  housed)  and  any  other 
written  resources  available.  Built  by  Matthew 
Weed,  a  blind  political  science  and  history  ma- 
jor, and  Victor  Grigorieff,  a  computer  science 
and  psychology  major,  the  system  is  based 
on  a  Macintosh  llfx,  although  it  can  run  on  ear- 
lier models,  since  each  Mac  program  has  a 
similar  interface.  It  uses  only  commercially 
available  software  and  hardware. 

Because  the  Macintosh  interface  has  re- 
mained consistent,  visually  impaired  users  on- 
ly have  to  learn  one  set  of  concepts  to  run  sev- 
eral different  programs.  The  Mac  also  has 


the  flexibility  Weed  and  Grigorieff  require. 
With  It,  they  can  convert  from  Mac  to  IBM 
text  files  as  needed  so  users  can  copy  files 
for  use  on  their  own  computers. 

In  addition  to  the  Macintosh  llfx,  the  sys- 
tem uses  the  Hewlett-Packard  ScanJet  Plus, 
OmniPage  and  ou/SPOKEW  software  for  scan- 
ning and  voice  synthesis.  inLARGEior  mag- 
nifying text,  a  word  processing  package,  and 
a  19-inch  monochrome  monitor  With  outSPO- 
KEN,  the  visually  impaired  can  use  graphical 
interfaces  95  percent  as  effectively  as  sight- 
ed users.  And  system  glitches  are  minor;  for 
example,  the  ScanJet  Plus  sees  the  number 
2  as  a  tilde  and  the  letter  /  as  an  n,  but  it's 
about  99.5-percent  accurate. 

The  ScanJet  Plus  is  used  to  scan  books, 
research  reports,  journal  articles,  and  other 
printed  documents  into  the  Macintosh  at  a 
rate  of  two  side-by-side  pages  per  40  sec- 
onds. The  text  is  then  converted  to  sound  us- 
ing OmniPage  and  outSPOKEN.  To  listen  to 
the  file,  the  user  opens  the  menu  with  a 
mouse  or  keystrokes  and  selects  the  options 
from  the  choices  spoken  by  the  voice  synthe- 
sizer. 

When  the  file  appears,  the  voice  synthesiz- 
er reads  it  aloud  either  one  line  at  a  time  or 
one  word  at  a  time  as  the  user  cursors  from 
line  to  line  or  word  to  word.  Either  method 
can  become  tiresome,  so  Weed  often  in- 
structs the  computer  to  speak  faster — up  to 
twice  as  fast  as  the  average  human  reads 
aloud.  With  outSPOKEN,  the  user  can  also 
control  type  fonts,  vocal  pitch,  and  volume, 
and  it  offers  a  word  dictionary  for  user-de- 
fined pronunciation,  a  graphics  dictionary  for 
identifying  common  signs  and  symbols,  and 


28 


COMPUTE 


29 


a  Find  command  for  locating  informa- 
tion on  the  screen. 

By  using  this  system,  Weed's  need 
for  hundreds  of  audiotapes  and  the 
hours  it  tal<;es  to  search  them  for  spe- 
cific quotes  are  eliminated.  He's  cut 
the  time  required  to  write  a  term  paper 
from  four  or  five  hours  per  page  to 
about  35  minutes  per  page. 

The  system  is  as  advantageous  for 
dyslexics  as  it  is  for  blind  users.  Grigo- 
rieff  says.  With  inLARGE  software,  in- 
dividual letters,  words,  and  lines  can 
be  enlarged  up  to  three  inches  in 
height  on  the  system's  19-inch  monitor. 
Words  can  still  be  spelled  and  words 
or  sentences  spoken,  making  it  easier 
to  read  new  words.  To  help  users 
keep  their  places,  the  system  speaks 
the  word  the  cursor  is  on  and  presents 
text  with  a  ragged  right  edge  and  a  ser- 
if typeface.  InLARGE  a\so  offers  a  full- 
screen crosshairs  cursor  to  make  it  eas- 
ier to  locate.  Grigorieff  says  the  sys- 
tem's potential  is  limitless. 

Visually  impaired  users  can  access 
networks  such  as  ARPAnet,  Internet, 
and  Bitnet — invaluable  aids  in  techni- 
cal work,  Eventually,  Weed  and  Grigo- 
rieff hope  an  interuniversity  electronic 
library  will  be  established  so  scanned 
versions  of  references  can  be  loaned 
just  like  printed  versions  of  documents. 
Right  now,  though,  Weed  says  copy- 


right laws  are  a  problem.  At  Yale, 
there  are  only  about  a  dozen  potential 
users,  and  the  possibility  that  any  one 
book  that's  scanned  will  be  used  again 
is  slim,  he  says.  So  to  save  computer 
memory,  he's  spending  part  of  his  sum- 
mer erasing  the  books  that  have  al- 
ready been  scanned  into  the  system. 
Yale's  system  was  built  last  fall  with 
a  $15,000  grant  from  Yale  University. 
Because  costs  are  dropping.  Weed  esti- 
mates the  same  system  could  be  built 
today  for  a  little  more  than  $10,000, 

Design  by  Voice  and  Movement 

All  the  way  across  the  country,  Jeff 
Burnett,  an  architecture  professor  at 
Washington  State  University,  and  Tech- 
nical Applications  Group  colleagues 
have  built  a  system  that  allows  quadri- 
plegics to  work  on  electronic  CAD  pro- 
jects with  the  same  levels  of  expertise 
as  their  able-bodied  colleagues.  This 
system,  Burnett  says,  also  works  with 
anything  graphically  oriented,  includ- 
ing spreadsheets. 

The  project,  as  yet  unnamed,  trans- 
parently links  a  DOS  machine  to  the 
powerful  UNIX  systems  that  are  need- 
ed for  CAD  and  to  a  telephone.  That 
configuration  can  then  be  booted  auto- 
matically and  controlled  by  speech  rec- 
ognition technology  and  an  infrared 
headpointer.  The  system  is  "glued"  to- 


gether with  custom  software. 

Users  can  boot  up  the  machine  by 
triggering  a  sensor — either  a  pressure 
pad  or  a  special  reflector — that  can  on- 
ly be  triggered  by  their  wheelchairs 
when  they  roll  up  to  the  PC.  Once  the 
machine  is  booted,  the  menu  comes 
up  and  can  be  used  either  by  issuing 
voice  commands  or  by  using  a  head- 
pointer  as  a  mouse. 

The  software  was  written  specifical- 
ly for  a  headpointer  made  by  Millenni- 
um Stride  Computers,  although  others 
can  be  used.  Because  the  headpointer 
uses  infrared  sensors,  users  don't 
have  to  be  tethered  to  their  computers 
with  electronic  cables, 

The  pointer  is  actually  a  reflective 
tape  mounted  on  eyeglasses  or  even 
on  a  pencil  tucked  behind  one  ear.  It's 
tracked  with  an  infrared  device  mount- 
ed atop  the  computer — just  the  oppo- 
site of  a  TV  remote  control. 

To  select  a  menu  function,  users 
move  their  heads  so  the  tape's  reflec- 
tion hits  the  desired  icon;  then  a  word 
is  spoken  that's  the  equivalent  of  click- 
ing a  mouse  button.  The  adaptive  inter- 
face allows  users  to  move  the  window 
around  rather  than  moving  their  heads 
in  awkward  positions. 

The  system  has  a  small  vocabulary, 
oriented  toward  CAD  work,  that  isn't 
context  sensitive.  Individual  users  can 
load  a  personal  vocabulary  or  label  doc- 
uments by  spelling  the  needed  words 
with  the  phonetic  alphabet.  To  load  the 
word  angle,  for  example,  the  user 
would  say,  "Alpha,  November,  golf,  Li- 
ma, echo."  Burnett's  system  uses  a 
Votan  voice  recognition  board,  one  of 
the  most  functional  available. 

When  the  phone  rings,  an  answer- 
ing machine  or  the  computer  picks  up 
the  call,  stopping  the  CAD  program  in 
its  place.  The  user  can  converse  using 
either  a  microphone  and  speaker  combi- 
nation or,  for  more  privacy,  a  headset. 
To  hang  up  the  phone,  the  computer's 
voice  recognition  system  listens  for  the 
words  hang  up  and  a  confirming  utter- 
ance. Upon  hang-up,  the  user  can  re- 
sume CAD  work  instantly. 

"If  users  are  familiar  with  CAD,  they 
can  be  functional  on  this  system  with- 
in one  day,  and  in  only  a  few  weeks,  af- 
ter creating  macros  and  editing  the 
vocabulary,  can  compete  in  the  same 
arena  and  at  the  same  level  as  their 
able-bodied  colleagues,"  Burnett 
says.  In  practice,  success  can  depend 
very  much  upon  the  user's  personal  mo- 
tivation. 

Users  are  now  being  trained  on  this 
system  at  the  University  of  Washington 
Center  for  the  Handicapped  in  Seattle. 
After  the  training,  they  leave  with  hard- 
ware and  software  tailored  specifically 
to  their  own  work  environment. 


30        COMPUTE 


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Images  Instead  of  Alphabet 

Researchers  at  Tufts  University  School 
of  fvledicine  in  Boston  are  using  com- 
puters to  tackle  a  different  problem: 
how  to  fielp  patients  wfio  have  lost  the 
ability  to  use  language — usually  as  the 
result  of  a  stroke.  The  type  of  brain  dam- 
age called  aphasia  affects  the  portion 
of  the  brain  where  words  and  speech 
are  processed,  leaving  patients  with 
the  ability  to  comprehend  much  of 
what  others  say  but  unable  to  reply. 
They  can't  formulate  thoughts  into  co- 
herent phrases  or  sentences.  Roughly 
one-fourth  of  the  half-million  people 
who  suffer  strokes  each  year  also  de- 
velop aphasia,  according  to  Cheryl 
Goodenough-Trepagnier,  associate  pro- 
fessor of  rehabilitation  medicine  at 
Tufts. 

Aphasic  patients  can,  however, 
learn  to  organize  symbols  into  a  coher- 
ent order  to  form  thoughts  and  sentenc- 
es. In  the  1970s,  patients  learned  to 
use  cards  with  symbols  to  express 
their  thoughts.  Now  those  symbols 
have  been  expanded  and  loaded  onto 
an  Apple  computer,  simplifying  their 
use. 

Trepagnier's  system,  called 
NewVic,  features  hundreds  of  sym- 
bols— still  called  cards  and  decks — 
arranged  in  categories  of  people,  ac- 
tions, objects,  modifiers,  and  preposi- 
tions. Eight  symbols  are  displayed  per 
computer  screen.  Patients  use  a 
mouse  to  select  cards,  scroll  through 
the  screens,  and  move  from  screen  to 
screen.  Decks  are  flexible  enough 
that  they  can  be  designed  to  allow 
speed  and  vocabulary  size  to  match  a 
patient's  abilities. 

Some  people  pick  up  the  system  al- 
most immediately,  while  others  take  a 
few  weeks  and  still  do  very  well  with  it. 
Although  they  don't  know  what  the  lim- 
its are,  Trepagnier  says  the  patients 
most  likely  to  benefit  are  those  who 
take  to  the  system  immediately  and 
who  are  functionally  impaired.  "We're 
just  beginning  to  be  able  to  develop  an 
appropriate  communication  medium 
for  people  with  severe  aphasia.  The 
big  problem  is  slowness,"  she  says,  "be- 
cause people  are  trying  to  lay  out  mes- 
sages through  very  impaired  motor  abil- 
ities. I  haven't  clocked  it,  but  it's  faster 
than  three  words  per  minute  [for  pa- 
tients who  are  fluent  with  NewVic].  One 
of  our  major  concerns  is  finding  a  way 
to  communicate  at  a  rate  other  people 
can  tolerate,  so  users  actually  get  to  en- 
gage in  conversation." 

Another  difficulty  is  in  designing  sym- 
bols to  match  verbs  since  aphasics  of- 
ten have  more  trouble  conceptualizing 
verbs  than  nouns,  Trepagnier  current- 
ly uses  pictures  to  suggest  verbs  but 
wants  to  develop  an  approach  where 

32        COMPUTE 


patients  can  animate  a  figure  through- 
out an  action,  actually  setting  the  imag- 
es in  motion.  For  example,  eating  an  ap- 
ple could  be  shown  by  choosing  a 
hand,  apple,  and  head;  putting  the 
hand  and  apple  together;  dragging 
them  to  the  head;  and  clicking  a 
mouse  key.  To  say,  "The  girl  is  run- 
ning," a  user  could  choose  a  picture  of 
a  girl,  click  the  mouse  at  her  feet,  and 
move  the  mouse  rapidly  across  the 
pad.  The  computer  would  show  it  as  a 
girl  running  across  the  screen. 

Of  course,  aphasics  can  only  use 
NewVic  if  they  have  it  with  them.  Hope- 
fully someday  a  true  portable  machine 
with  a  touchscreen  will  be  available,  sim- 
ilar to  some  of  the  lightweight  portables 
that  have  surfaced  in  recent  months. 

Trepagnier  plans  to  make  her  sys- 
tem and  basic  documentation  availa- 
ble to  the  public  this  year.  It  uses  the 
NewVic  software  she  developed  and 
runs  on  a  Macintosh  SE  or  SE30,  or 
any  other  Macintosh  machine  with  at 
least  512K  of  RAf^. 

What  About  Tomorrow? 

Great  strides  have  been  made  in  re- 
cent years  to  bring  the  challenges  of 


the  physically  impaired  to  the  forefront 
of  the  American  consciousness.  In 
fact,  many  other  products  geared  to- 
ward the  disabled,  in  addition  to  the 
ones  mentioned  in  this  article,  are  ac- 
tually on  the  market  now,  but  most  are 
known  only  within  small  circles. 

Computer  technology  promises  to 
make  life  easier  for  the  disabled.  Per- 
sonal fulfillment  and  overcoming  stum- 
bling blocks  have  always  been  the  key 
goals  of  the  personal  computer,  Now 
the  technology  that  has  leveraged  our 
productivity  and  filled  our  leisure 
hours  is  helping  the  silent  to  speak,  the 
blind  to  see,  and  the  paralyzed  to  ma- 
nipulate their  worlds,  and  it's  enabling 
technicians  and  research  laboratories 
to  perform  computer-aided  miracles. 

Perhaps  tomorrow,  finding  special 
hardware  and  software  for  the  physi- 
cally challenged  will  be  as  simple  as 
checking  out  a  disk  at  the  local  library 
or  heading  to  the  nearest  electronics 
store  for  the  latest  equipment.  □ 

Gail  Button  is  an  independent  writer  specializing 
in  science  and  technology.  Her  articles  have  ap- 
peared in  Science.  Sea  Frontiers,  The  World  &  I. 
IEEE  Software,  and  other  publications.  She  is 
based  in  southern  Calilornia. 


PRODUa  LISTING 

For  more  information  on 

the  products  discussed  in  this  article,  contact  the 

manufacturers  and  publishers  at  the  addresses  listed  below. 

Software 

Nod  Headpo Inter 

$495 

Millennium  Stride  Computer 

inLARGE 

$95 

1275  Kleppe  Ln.,  Sle.  5 

outSPOKEN 

Sparks,  tMV  89431 

$395 

(702)  331-6000 

Berkeley  Systems 

1700  SiiattuGk  Ave. 

ScanJet  Plus 

Berkeley,  CA  94709 

$1,595 

(415)540-5536 

Interface  Kit 

S595 

Hewlett-Packard  Customef  Information 

NewVic 

$500 

19310  Prune  Ridge  Ave. 

Department  of  Rehabititation  Medicine 

Cupertino,  CA  95014 

Tufts  University  Sctiool  of  Medicine 

(800)  752-0900 

Cheryl  Goodenough-Trepagnier,  Ph.D. 

75  Kneeland  St.,  5th  Floor 

VPC  2100  Voice  Recognition  Board 

Boston,  IVIA  02111 

$1,800 

(617)956-5036 

Votan 

210  Hammond  St, 

OmniPage  2.12  for  the  Macintosh 

Fremont,  CA  94539 

$695 

(415)  490-7600 

Caere 

too  Cooper  Ct, 

Los  Gatos,  CA  95030 

Additional  Resources 

(408)  395-7000 

IBM  National  Support  Center  for 
Persons  with  Disabilities 

Hardware 

P.O.  Box  2150 

Atlanta,  GA  30301-2150 

Keyboard  Switches 

S60-$150 

(800)  426-2133 

Zygo  Industries 

Resource  Center  for  the  Handicapped 

P.O.  Box  1008 

20150  45lh  Ave,  NE 

Portland,  OR  97207 

Seattle,  WA  93155 

(503)  684-6006 

(206)  362-2273 

TEST  LAB 


AST  PREMIUM 
EXEC  3a6SX/20 

Have  you  ever  loved  something 
so  much  that  you  were  willing  to 
overlook  its  flaws?  That's  how  I 
feel  about  the  AST  Premium  Ex- 
ec 386SX/20.  Despite  the  prob- 
lems with  early  production  mod- 
els, this  is  the  best  overall  note- 
book computer  I've  seen. 

For  one  thing,  it  speeds  along 
at  a  full  20  MHz.  which  is  fast 
enough  to  run  most  Windows  pro- 
grams at  a  comfortable  clip.  In  ad- 
dition, you  can  order  the  Premi- 


um Exec  with  a  20MB,  40MB.  or 
60MB  hard  drive  that's  rated  an 
impressive  23  milliseconds 
(20MB  drive)  or  even  faster  19  mil- 
liseconds (40MB  and  60MB 
drives).  I'm  using  the  60MB  ver- 
sion, and  it's  a  real  joy  to  have  so 
many  of  my  favorite  programs 
with  me — no  matter  where  I  go. 
AST  Research  has  made  up- 
gradability  a  major  feature  of  its 
desktop  computers  and  has  car- 
ried that  philosophy  to  its  new 
line  of  notebook  computers.  You 
can  buy  the  12-MHz  286  version 
of  the  Premium  Exec  notebook 
and  upgrade  the  microprocessor 
later  to  a  20-MHz  386SX— for  not 
much  more  than  the  price  differ- 
ence between  the  two  machines 
($400  as  opposed  to  S499). 


While  the  386SX  comes  with 
2MB  of  RAM  and  the  286  comes 
with  1MB,  you  can  expand  the 
memory  of  either  machine  to  a  to- 
tal of  SMB.  Even  though  the  Pre- 
mium Exec  is  relatively  new,  you 
can  already  buy  memory  up- 
grades from  discount  mail-order 
houses  at  a  substantial  discount. 
(AST  charges  $995  for  4MB, 
while  one  maii-order  company 
charges  $388  for  the  same 
amount  of  memory.  As  for  the  note- 
book itself,  you  can  buy  the  vari- 
ous models  by  mail  order  at  a  dis- 
count of  about  20-25  percent.) 

The  Premium  Exec's  LCD 
screen  is  the  sharpest  I've  seen, 
and  its  VGA  controller,  from  Cir- 


AST  RESEARCH 

16215  Alton  Pkwy. 

P.O.  BOX196S8 

Irvine,  CA  92713-9658 

(800)  876-4278 

(714!  727-9292 

List  Price:  $2,995  for  20MB;  $3,395 

for  40MB;  $3,795  for  60MB 
Street  Price:  $2,337* 

rus  Logic,  does  a  great  job  of 
translating  colors  into  32 
shades    of    gray.    For 
those  times  when  you 
absolutely  must  have 
color,  you  can  hook  up 
a  color  VGA   monitor 
through  the  external  VGA  port. 

In  addition  to  the  VGA  port  and 
the  usual  parallel  and  serial 
ports,  the  Premium  Exec  includes 
a  PS/2  port  that  lets  you  add  an 
external  keyboard,  mouse,  or  nu- 
meric keypad,  You  can  also  add 
an  internal  2400-baud  data  mo- 
dem ($249)  or  an  internal  2400- 
baud  fax  modem  ($349).  The  fax 
modem  is  send-only  (9600  baud) 
and  uses  the  Sierra  chip — so  it 
works  fine  with  WinFax.  Even 
though  you  can  hook  up  an  exter- 
nal keyboard,  you'll  probably  use 
the  built-in  keyboard  most  of  the 
time.  The  AST's  keyboard  stands 
out  as  one  of  the  best  I've  seen 
on  a  notebook  computer.  It  has 
a  good  feel  and  a  slight  audio 
click  when  you  press  a  key.  Un- 


like some  other  notebook  comput- 
ers, this  one  doesn't  make  you 
press  a  special  option  key  to  ac- 
cess the  Home,  End,  PageUp, 
and  PageDown  keys.  My  only  crit- 
icism is  that  the  right  Shift  and 
Backspace  keys  are  too  small. 

As  for  the  case  itself,  it's  solid- 
ly built  and  looks  great.  The 
small  battery  is  relatively  light- 
weight and  easy  to  remove.  The 
screen  feels  firm  when  you  move 
it  into  place  and  locks  tight  when 
you  close  it  for  travel. 

Many  notebook  computers  of- 
fer power-saving  features  to  ex- 
tend the  life  of  the  battery.  The  Pre- 
mium Exec  tops  them  all  with 
three  ways  to  save  power;  pro- 
grammable timeouts  that  can 
shut  down  the  hard  drive  and 
LCD  screen  when  they're  not  be- 
ing used,  a  suspend/resume 
mode  that  can  shut  down  the  en- 
tire system  while  preserving  your 
data  (unfortunately,  this  feature 
doesn't  work  with  protected- 
mode  programs,  such  as  Win- 
dows 3.0),  and  a  BlOS-ievel 
clock-speed  control  feature  that 
can  automatically  slow  down  the 
processor  when  it  isn't  process- 
ing data  or  redrawing  the 
screen.  With  the  power-saving  fea- 
tures switched  on,  you  can  ex- 
pect over  three  hours  of  battery 
life  with  each  charge.  Until  note- 
book computers  are  available 
with  Intel's  new  power-saving 
386SL  chip,  the  Premium  Exec  is 
the  state  of  the  art  in  power  man- 
agement. 

So  what  were  the  problems 
with  the  early  production  models? 
The  screen  flickered  slightly 
when  the  Premium  Exec  was  run- 
ning on  the  battery,  and  Windows 
programs  wouldn't  recognize  the 
modem,  I  also  couldn  t  get  one  of 
the  units  to  recognize  the  PS/2 
port.  All  three  problems  were 
fixed  with  BIOS  updates,  so  be 
sure  to  get  a  BIOS  with  a  version 
number  of  1 .06.04  or  higher. 

Notebook  technology  moves 
so  fast  that  a  recommendation 

'Test  Lab  street  prices  are  an  average  ot 
prices  aavertised  in  computer  magazines 
and  national  newspapers  during  June. 

33 


Y 

! 

\ 

) 

^ 

1 

i „ 

L 

f 

1 

1 

"It  expanded  my  horizons, 
without  exceeding  my  budget " 

"With  PRODIGY,®  there's  a  panorama 
of  information,  services,  advice, 
and  entertainment  at  my  command. 

Hundreds  of  exciting  features,  and  all  for 
just  $12.95  a  month,  •with  no  online  time 
charges.  That  means  I  can  use  PRODIGY 
without  worrying  that  the  meter  is  ruiming. 

"The  great  graphics  and  friendly  interface  are 
real  attention-getters.  And  the  menus  and 
cross-referencing  features  make  it  so  easy, 
my  whole  family's  involved. 

"There's  so  much  to  tell  you  about  PRODIGY, 
I  hardly  know  where  to  start. 

"We  talk  to  other  members. 

We  all  love  the  PRODIGY  clubs  where 
we  exchange  information  about  things 
we  eryoy.  The  computer  club  is  great 
because  it  keeps  me  up  on  the  latest 
PC  technology  My  vrife's  favorite  is  the  food 
club  where  she  shares  recipes  and  tips. 

^l  do  more  shopping  and  banking 
in  a  lot  less  time. 

I  go  window-shopping  for  ideas  on  PRODIGY 
and  make  purchases  by  keyboard  instead- 
of  by  car.  And  when  the  bills  arrive,  no 
problem.  With  PRODIGY  I  can  pay  them 
right  from  my  PC.  It  would  take  all 
day  to  tell  you  about  all  the  exciting 
things  I  do  on  PRODIGY. 

"You  gotta  get  this  thing." 

The  PRODIGY  service,  connected  to  your  home 
____,^,^     computer  and  phone 
:^^ttKBA    line,  has  games,  sports 
pj^iry     .'        information,  an  encyclo- 
pedia, and  much,  much 
more.  And,  it's  just  $12.95 
amonth,includmg 
30  personal  messages.* 

PRODIGY  is  available  for  IBM*  or  compatible,  and  Macintosh* 
computers.  Call  1-800-776-3693,  ext:  212,  to  find  out  where 
you  can  purchase  a  PRODIGY  Service  Start-up  Kit 
now.  Or  look  for  PRODIGY  already  included         " 
with  many  popular  computers 

Circle  Reader  Service  NumbefJjSi 


TEST  LAB 


can  be  outdated  by  the  time  you 
read  a  review.  Withi  thiat  disclaim- 
er out  of  the  way,  I  can  safely  say 
Ihiat  the  AST  Premium  Exec  offers 
\he  best  speed,  expandability, 
arid  power-management  features 
of  any  notebook  computer.  And 
all  for  a  very  attractive  price, 

DAVID  ENGLISH 


DELL  320N 


Given  a  notebook  computer's  de- 
sign constraints,  Dell  has  done  a 
superb  job  with  the  320N.  As 
with  any  laptop,  this  machine  cer- 
tainly makes  compromises,  but 
eacfi  one  is  well  thought  out  and 
carefully  engineered.  In  almost 
every  area,  Dell  has  done  a  little 
more  and  gone  a  little  farther  to 
make  this  machine  smaller,  fast- 
er, and  easier  to  use  than  the  com- 
petition. 

If  you  look  at  the  dimensions 
and  weight  of  this  computer,  for 
example,  you'll  notice  that  it's 
just  a  bit  smaller  and  a  bit  lighter 
than  most  of  the  other  laptops  re- 
viewed here,  And  if  you  place  the 
320N  beside  almost  any  other 
notebook,  this  machine's  sleek 
black  body  and  carefully  sculpt- 
ed features  will  make  the  other  ma- 
chine look  clunky.  But  the  320N 
is  much  more  than  just  small  size 
and  high  style. 

The  standard  VGA  screen 
(640  X    480)  is   exceptionally 


bright.  When  you're  looking  at 
LCD  VGA  displays,  one  of  the 
most  important  features  to  consid- 
er is  the  finesse  with  which  the  vid- 
eo controller  maps  colors  to  gray 
levels.  In  this  respect  the  Dell  is 
exceptional.  In  Windows'  Soli- 
taire, for  example,  you  can  tell  the 
red  cards  from  the  black  ones  by 
their  shading. 

As  far  as  video 
speed  goes,  this  ma- 
chine's scrolling  and  re- 

DELL  COMPUTER 
9505  Arboretum  BEvd. 
Austin,  TX  78759 
(8001  426-S150 
List  Price:  $3,399  lor 

40MB;  $3,699  lor  SOMB 
Street  Price:  n/a 


400  pixels  of  vertical  resolution  in- 
stead of  the  VGA's  possible  480. 
a  common  compromise  in  note- 
books. Laptop  UltraVision  from 
Personics  fixed  this  problem  and 
allowed  DOS  to  use  the  full  480  pix- 
els for  a  much  improved  display, 
but  I'd  prefer  that  the  machine's  vid- 
eo controller  do  this  itself. 


fresh  rate  are  quite 

fast.   One  of  the 

best   ways   to 

judge  video 

speed  is  to 

use         a 

mouse    in 

graphics 

mode.  Most 

LCD  displays  simply  can't  keep  up 

with  the  mouse  cursor,  but  the 

320N  does  a  very  good  job. 

My  onty  complaint  with  the 
screen  is  that  it's  compressed 
when  DOS  programs  run.  This 
happens  because  the  video's  ver- 
tical resolution  in  DOS  is  actually 


The  320N's  keyboard  is  certain- 
ly a  compromise  compared  with 
most  desktop  keyboards,  but  its 
85-key  layout  is  very  well  thought 
out  and  offers  a  3-mm  key  travel 
(most  notebooks  have  a  shorter 
2-mm  key  travel).  The  cursor 


COMPUTE  APPLICATION 
INDEXES 

Since  the  Test  Lab  section  is 
designed  to  give  you  the  best 
information  about  how  sys- 
tems will  perform  when  you 
take  them  home  or  to  your  of- 
fice, we  performed  a  set  of 
tests  involving  commonly 
used  applications. 

The  timings  indicate  how 
long  it  took  a  particular  com- 
puter to  sort  a  database,  per- 
form a  search  and  replace  in 
a  word  processor,  and  recal- 
culate a  spreadsheet. 

—RICHARD  C-  LEINECKER 


35 


TEST  LAB 


keys  assume  an  inverted  T  forma- 
tion and  the  Home,  PgUp,  PgDn, 
and  End  keys  line  up  along  tlie 
right  side  of  the  keyboard.  None 
require  you  to  press  a  special  Fn 
key  to  access  them. 

There  are  also  12  function 
keys,  which  are  smaller  than  the 
other  keys.  But  you  don't  have  to 
press  the  dreaded  Fn  key  to  use 
them. 

The  Dell  sports  a  2O-MH2 
386SX  CPU  that  provided  more 
than  enough  power  for  everything 
I  wanted  to  do  on  the  road,  includ- 
ing running  Microsoft  Windows  in 
386-enhanced  mode. 

As  for  memory,  the  320N 
comes  with  1fvlB,  expandable  to 
SMB.  The  unit  I  reviev/ed  was 
maxed  out  with  the  full  StvlB, 
which  1  certainly  recommend,  if 
you  can  afford  it. 

The  machine  comes  with  either 
a  30-  or  60MB  19-ms  IDE  hard 
disk.  The  unit  1  reviewed  was 
equipped  with  a  60,  and  it  siz- 
zled. 1  never  felt  I  was  waiting  for 
the  hard  disk,  even  when  using 
virtual  memory  {using  the  disk  as 
if  it  were  RAf\/l)  in  Windows. 

The  320N's  ni-cad  battery 
gave  me  a  bit  of  a  scare.  It's  sup- 
posed to  last  for  three  hours,  but 
the  low  battery  light  came  on  af- 
ter about  ten  minutes  of  use.  The 
machine  continued  to  chug  along 
happily,  however,  for  nearly 
three  hours.  The  warning  light 
kept  me  worried,  however. 

To  help  consen/e  the  battery, 
you  can  employ  several  power- 
saving  features  built  into  the 
32QN.  You  can  set  timeout  values 
for  the  hard  disk,  the  display,  and 
the  system.  In  addition,  there's  a 
convenient  standby  button  that 
places  the  machine  in  a  special 
battery-saving  mode. 

When  it  comes  to  talking  to  the 
outside  world,  the  Dell  320N  has 
a  full  complement  of  ports.  There 
is  one  serial  and  one  parallel  port, 
an  external  VGA  port,  and  PS/2 
mouse  and  keyboard  ports.  An  in- 
ternal modem  is  available  as  an  op- 
tion, 

You've  probably  gathered  that 
I'm  enthusiastic  about  this  ma- 

36        COMPUTE 


chine.  It's  beautifully  designed 
and  exceptionally  fast  and  pow- 
erful. But  is  it  worth  the  price''  At 
S3,399  for  the  standard  configu- 
ration, it's  not  cheap,  but  if  you 
look  at  similarly  equipped  compe- 
tition, it's  almost  a  bargain. 

If  you're  thinking  about  buying 
a  notebook,  the  next  question  to 
ask  about  the  32GN  is  whether 
you  need  this  much  power.  If 
you're  primarily  doing  word  proc- 
essing, for  example,  then  a  note- 
book in  the  320N's  class  is  over- 
kill. But  you  need  a  powerhouse 
like  the  320N  if  it's  your  primary 
machine.  And  for  running  Win- 
dows, a  computer  in  the  320N's 
league  is  a  must.  For  state-of-the- 
art  computing  in  a  very  small  pack- 
age, the  320N  is  a  world-class  per- 
former that  goes  the  extra  mile. 

CLIFTON  KARNES 


at  16  MHz,  and  my  review  unit 
was  packed  with  3MB  of  memo- 
ry. Only  the  20MB  hard  disk  left 
me  feeling  a  bit  cramped  for 
space. 

The  two  most  important  parts 
of  any  laptop,  arguably,  are  the 
screen  and  the  keyboard.  These 
are  the  parts  that  you  have  to  in- 
teract directly  with,  and  the  Grid 
has  the  best-feeling  keyboard 
and  the  nicest  screen  I've  ever 
used,  laptop  or  desktop.  Key- 
board springs  are  used  in  the 
Grid  to  provide  excellent  tactile 
feedbac[<  without  annoying  click- 
ing sounds.  The  keyboard  spac- 
ing is  the  same  as  you'd  find  on 
a  stand-alone  PC  l<eyboard,  so 
your  fingers  aren't  cramped  as 
you  type.  The  12  function  keys 
are  arrayed  across  the  top  of  the 


GRID  SYSTEMS 

47211  Lakeview  Blvd. 

Fremont,  CA  94537- 

5003 

(8001  222-GRlD 

(415)  6S6-4700 

List  Price:  $3,495  lor 

20MB;  $3,995 

for  80MS 

Street  Price:  n/a 


GRID  1720 


Laptops  are  great,  but  it's  rare 
that  you  would  choose  one  over 
a  comparably  equipped  desk- 
top computer.  That's  exactly,  how- 
ever, what  the  Grid  1720  con- 
vinced me  to  do.  Ever  since  I've 
had  my  review  unit,  I've  only 
turned  on  my  386SX  desktop  to 
play  Lexi-Cross.  This  sleek, 
black,  6.9-pound  Grid  packs 
enough  power  to  run  all  but  the 
most  demanding  applications. 
Its  80C2B6  microprocessor  runs 


keyboard,  and  the  cursor  keys 
are  in  a  standard  inverted-T  lay- 
out. You  can  reverse  the  posi- 
tions of  the  Ctrl  and  CapsLock 
keys  by  simply  switching  the  key 
caps  and  flipping  a  switch  on  the 
bottom  of  the  computer.  Only  the 
lack  of  a  separate  numeric  key- 
pad would  ever  tempt  you  to 
take  advantage  of  an  externa!  key- 
board. 

You  owe  it  to  your  eyes  to 
check  out  the  Grid's  LCD  VGA 
screen.  Easier  to  look  at  for  long 
periods  of  time  than  even  the 
sharpest  Super  VGA  monitors, 
the    Grid's    screen    produces 


crisp,  solid  black  characters  on 
a  gray  background.  Best  of  all, 
you  won't  notice  any  of  the  ghost- 
ing common  to  VGA-resolution 
LCD  screens.  (The  monitor  was 
noticeably  sharper  than  that  of 
Tandy's  similar  2810  notebook 
PC.)  I  felt  the  desire  to  use  an  ex- 
ternal VGA  color  monitor  only 
when  I  played  games, 

The  Grid  1720  has  most  of  the 
amenities  you'd  expect  on  a  mod- 
ern laptop.  Along  with  VGA  and 
keyboard  ports,  it  comes  with  se- 
rial and  parallel  ports,  a  1.44MB 


drain  and  decreases  battery  life. 
With  3MB  I  was  able  to  use  the 
1720  for  about  3  hours.  Remov- 
ing the  2MB  of  expansion  memo- 
ry increased  that  duration  to  a  lit- 
tie  over  3Vi  hours.  Unless  you 
absolutely  require  5MB  of  memo- 
ry, the  3MB-configuration  com- 
promise between  battery  life' and 
performance  will  serve  you  well. 
Adding  memory  or  an  80287 
math  coprocessor  won't  cause 
you  much  trouble — just  remove  a 
panel  from  the  bottom  of  the  com- 
puter and  plug  in  the  SIMMs  or 


floppy  drive,  and  an  internal 
Hayes-compatible  modem,  Grid 
chose  a  20MB  hard  disk  to  save 
space  and  weight — it's  one  of  the 
new  2'/2-inch  models.  Despite 
the  limited  capacity,  it's  quiet  and 
uses  very  little  power  compared 
to  larger  drives. 

Normally  I  find  Windows  too 
sluggish  on  a  286  system,  but  the 
extra  zip  provided  by  the  Grid's 
16-MHz  clock  speed  makes  all 
the  difference.  The  3MB  of  memo- 
ry in  the  system  I  tested  allowed 
me  to  set  up  a  large  disk  cache, 
speeding  operations  even  more. 
Add  one  of  the  new  clip-on  track- 
balls, and  you've  got  a  nice,  porta- 
ble, no-compromise  M//nc/ows  sys- 
tem for  the  road. 

While  the  1720  can  handle  up 
to  5MB  of  memory,  each  addition- 
al megabyte  increases  power 


math  chip. 

The  Grid  has  above-average 
power-managennent  capabilities. 
The  hard  drive  and  screen  will  au- 
tomatically power  down  after  a  us- 
er-selectable period.  You  can  al- 
so selectively  disable  the  speak- 
er, serial  port,  LCD  display,  and 
hard  drive  in  order  to  save  pow- 
er. For  non-speed-sensitive  soft- 
ware applications,  such  as  word 
processing,  toggling  the  system 
down  to  8  MHz  will  extend  battery 
life  even  further.  A  key  combina- 
tion will  put  the  computer  in  stand- 
by mode,  turning  off  the  hard 
disk,  LCD,  backlight,  and  floppy 
disk  controller.  The  program  in 
memory  resumes  upon  the  first 
keypress, 

The  concise  97-page  owner's 
manual  covers  all  the  computer's 
features  and  provides  a  brief  in- 


troduction to  MS-DOS.  While  oth- 
er computer  packages  may  in- 
clude larger,  more  detailed  man- 
uals, average  users  will  probably 
find  all  the  information  that  they 
need  here.  And  this  manual  is 
small  enough  to  slip  into  your  lap- 
top carry  case. 

The  Grid  1720  is  speedy,  well- 
constructed,  and  an  ergonomic 
marvel.  And  it's  certainly  one  of 
the  most  attractive  MS-DOS  com- 
puters I've  ever  used,  desktop  or 
laptop.  Now  I  understand  why  NA- 
SA has  flown  Grid  laptops  on  the 
space  shuttle. 

DENNY  AiKIN 


HYUNDAI  SUPER-LT5 

The  Hyundai  Super-LT5  makes 
the  machines  I  once  toted  under 
my  arm  se(@m  terribly  limited — 
and  wonderfully  light,  At  11-plus 
pounds,  it's  a  load  at  the  end  of 
your  arm  or  on  your  lap,  with  a 
bulky  AC  adapter  when  you're 
not  running  it  on  battery  power — 
but  then,  that's  true  of  any  laptop 
in  this  class.  The  Super-LT5  is  al- 
so a  fast,  efficient  laptop  with  a 
roomy  hard  drive,  a  sharp 
screen,  and  a  nice-size  keyboard. 

Weight  aside,  it's  a  well-made 
machine  with  the  advantages  of 
a  desktop  model  compressed  in- 
to a  box  smaller  than  a  briefcase. 
With  a  built-in  handle  and  a 
screen  that  folds  down  and  locks 
readily  Into  place,  the  Super-LT5 
is  its  own  case. 

The  keyboard,  though 
understandably  cramped,  fea- 
tures full-size,  fully  responsive 
keys.  It's  laid  out  in  a  familiar  man- 
ner, with  the  function  keys  ar- 
rayed horizontally  along  the  top. 
The  number  keyboard  overlaps 
some  of  the  letters,  meaning  that 
it's  separated  from  the  familiar 
overlay  with  the  cursor-movement 
keys.  Given  that  the  Hyundai  Su- 
per-LT5  is  a  laptop,  it's  a  perfect- 
ly suitable  layout,  although  the 
f^lumLock  key's  proximity  to  the 
right  Shift,  Ctrl,  and  Alt  keys 
caused  me  to  activate  it  inadver- 
tently more  than  once. 

37 


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RAMPAGE  PLUS  264 

UP  TO  auBfORAriw  4,0 

Offl  S3«  5/2*3  $414  2MB  $459   «ffl  $579 
RAMVANTAGE 

mams  yirsroMOra 

UPTOiMBEXTiNDEDMEWORr 
W;)28K  $S9 


LUERJET  IIP,  III,  HID,  HIP 

1MB  $«B  2A1B  $139   WB  $239 

UFETIME  WARRANTY 

USERjET  II  &  IID 
IMS  $95  2/iiB  $149    4MB  $249 


PANASONIC 


4420  &  44501 

1MB  $109    2MS  $119    im  $249 

445D 

im  $179 


TOSHIBA 


PACE  LASER  i 
im  $129   2AiB  $169   4A1B  $2(9 


EPL4000 

1MB  $129   2A1S  $149   4A1S  $249 


IBM  4019  &40I9E 


IA1B  $139  2Alfl  $189   l5Mi  S2S9 


C    T    S 

MODULES 


IBM  Pm  MODULES 


4450404  imnmseissiKio  $129 

4450408  2mmD70ai  $139 

4450403  immSIMM  $(9 

4450372  2M6R»«J0J47  $249 

4450375  immaBmi  $135 

4450379  2MflMODMI-IJ(/3;i  $209 

34F2933  « PS/2  SIMM  $3J9 

87F9977  4mPSIlSlMM  $339 

mim  2mmio-2Si  $139 

4451040  4MBMODSD-A2fMI  $49$ 

4450118  4mmD90&95  $399 


PS/2  EXPANSION  BOARDS 


4450409  2-SM6  MOD  50,502. 40  $440 

4450405  2-3MflMOD70&80  $440 

34F3077  2-H/HBM00  70&80W/2MB  $485 

34F30II  4-l4MSMOO70&e0WrtMB  $490 

4450185  l-)JMflMOOiO.J5SX;40W;(MB  $415 


EVEREX 


RAM  3000  0K6  $99   5l2Kfl  $129 
RAM  8000  0KB  $225   2MB  $325 


ABOVE  BOARD  PLUS  8  WI1P&  $559 
ABOVE  BOARD  PLUS  W/JI2ra  $559 

FOR  PSn  MICROCHANNEL 
ABOVE  BOARD  1  PLUS  0KB  $349 

ABOVE  BOARD  MC  11  $559 

I/O  BOARDS 


BOCA  RESEARCH 


IO/AT4liS£R!iiPAft$4i 

IO/AT42  25ffl4IFAR  $49 

IO/AT44  2S£R4  2M  $53 

lOnaCLOCK/CAL  I  S£fl  4  I  PAR  $49 

DUAl  CfiAPHJG  «W7H!  W/PAR  $49 

FOR  PS/2  MICROCHANNEL 

MCA2S£J18i;PAR  SII4 

HCAPAMUaiPAJi  $79 


COMPUTER  M  CE 


MICROSOFT  rai«n  s« 

MICROSOFT  BUS  VERSION  $104 

MICROSOFT  BALLPOINT  $129 

MICROSOFT  SERWWINDOWS  $149 

LOGITECH  C9SER-PSn  $49 

LOGITECH  MOUSEMAN  $79 

LOGITECH  TRACKMAN  SER  $J5 

DEXXA  MOUSE  BT  LOGITECH  $11! 

LOGITECH  CORDLESS  JIM 


CANON 


LBP4 
JMS  $1(9   2MB  $219  4MB  $319 

LBP8 
1MB  $119  2MS$IS9  4MB  $259 


OKILASER4D0,800.820 
2MS  $189   4m  $289 


POSTSCRIPT 


PACIHC  PAGE  FOR  HP^ 
ADOBE  FOR  HP  II 

IMAGESCRIPT  FOR  HP'S 

LAPTOP  UPGRADES 


$349 
$289 
$281 


EXECUTIVE  NOTEBOOK 
im  $91    4m  $499 


MEGAHERTZ  MODEMS 


FOR  MOST  LAPTOPS 

240CeD  INTERNAL  $149 

FOR  TOSHIBA  LAPTOPS 

24O0BD  IMTERNAL  $149     W,'MN?5  $210 

2400/9400  FAX/MODEM  $347 

ETHERNET  ADAPTER   $295 

LAPLAN  TWISTED  PAIR 
ETHERNET  ADAPTER   $199 

REMOTE  5250  EMULATION     $499 
REMOTE  3270  EMULATION     $499 


PROCOM  PS/2  DRIVES 


IIOMBHDL  50I50I 
200MB  HDL  JO/50Z 
lOOMB  SCSI  EXT 
200MB  SCSI  EXT 
120MB  SCSI  EXT 
1.2MB  EXT  FDD 
MC  SCSI  ADAPTER 


$849 
$1375 

$«S5 
$1457 


COMPAQ  DESKPRO 


TOSHIBA 


TIlOOXEffiE,  TliOO,  T3I00E,T3I00SX, 

T1100SX,TSI00,  T5200  2Mfl  $159 

T3200SXC  2M6  $199 

T3100SXC  4MB  $399 

TIOOOSEnCEAJ  &  nOOOSX  /MB  $189 

Tl  OOOSEOCEM  &  nOOOSX  2Mfl  $249 

TIOOOLEiT2000SX  4Mfl  $495 

T3I00SX.T3200SX  4Mfl  $447 

T320O  3MB  S279 


DESKPRO   384/20/15n0E/2SE  &  }t4S 

IWBMODUlf  $109   4M8MODU1E  $299 

IMS  EXP  BOARD  $195   4MB£XPB0AJ!D  $345 

DESKPRO  384/11/484/25  SYSTEMPRO 

2MBM0DUt£  $149 

1/3  HEIGHT  FLOPPY  DISK  DRIVES 

1.44MB  $129    (JMB  $119 


COMPAQ  LAPTOPS 


PORTASL£LTEl» 

1MB  $119   2MB  $179   4m  $SS9 

PORTABLE  LTE  3BtS/20 

1MB  $275   4M8  5485 

PORTABLE  386/20 

I  MB  UPGRADE  KIT  $217 

4MB  EXPANSION  BOARD  $710 

4MB  EXTENSION  BOARD  $710 

SLTm 

1MB  $154  4MB  $549 

SLTlei 

IMS  $154  2M6  $1SS   4MB  $M9 

HARD  DRIVES 


CONNER 


42MB  25MS  IDE 
104MB  25MS  IDE 
200MB  I4MS  IDE 
100MB  I4MS  SCSI 


SEAGATE 


ST-I57A44HB28MSIDE 
ST-I102AS4HBI9MSIDE 
n-ll44AI25MBI9MSIDE 
ST-I119AIIIMB  ISMS  IDE 


$239 
J457 


$llf 

$347 
$4it 
$740 


THE  NATIONAL  LEADER  IN  MEMORY  EXPANSION 


UPGRADE  TO  YOUR  SPECIFICATIONS  WITH  CONFIDENCE 


VIDEO  GRAPHICS  CARDS 


ORCH  D  TECHNOLOGY 


PRODESiGNER  IIS       Slim  %m  im  im 

PRODESIGNERIIHCFORl>Sa  im  im 


eSM  ULTRA  Pill  OR  ISA  BUS  Slim  J469 

85 14  ULTRA  PLUS  VGA  Wlim  $599 

VGA  WONDER  WIMOUSE  S 1 2KB  $239 

VGA  INTEGRA  W/2jm  J!19 

BASIC  VGA  MXm  $99 


BOCA  RESEARCH 


BOCA  SUPER  VGA  SI2K  $119   IMS  $179 

BOCA  VGA  ^XSCO  $119 


MONITORS 


CM  I4«  MULTISYNOSOPERVGA 

H  INCH  raNmON/JSOP 

S595 

CHI450  HULTtSTNOSUPER  VGA 

14  INCH  TRINITRON  NON-INTiRiACED.25DP 
$725 


MULTISYNC  2A  SUPER  VGA  14"  $565 

MULTISYNC  3D  14"  $74S 

MULTISYNC4D  $1195 


EVEREX 


EVERFAX  2«i  W/MNPS  INT 
EVERFAX  24(96  V//MNP5  EXT 
EVERCOM  24DaBAUD  INT 


JTFAX  9600/140OBAUD 
PERSONAL  MODEM  2400  PLUS 


EXT  1400  MODEM  9600  SENDFAX 
INT  240019600  SEND/REC.  FAX/MODEM 
INT  2400  BAUD  MODEM 
EXT  2400  BAUD  MODEM 


$119 

$164 

$39 

$95 


PRACTICAL  PERIPHERALS 


INT  2400  BAUD  MODEM  WfMNPS  $169 

V.42  BIS  $199 

POCKET24C0  $109 


US  ROBOTICS 


COURIER  2400  $258 

COURIER  2400  FOR  PS/2  $295 

COURIER  V.32BIS  1 4,40OBPS...  ii& 


MOTHERBOARDS 


MADE  IN  THE  USA 
EXCELLENT  QUALITY 

4S6-J]  EISA  ENTERPRISE  MK6  CACHE  $2990 

486-2S  EISA  ENTERPRISE  im  OICHE  $2519 

436-J3  VOYAGER  J28»aaOVE  $2519 

486-2S  VOYAGER  J28K8  CAM  $1955 

386-13  HARK  IV  MKB  CACHE  $1092 

386-15  MARK  III  6m  (XH£  $920 

386SX-10  32KflaCH£  $W0 


MICRONICS 


MADE  IN  THE  USA 
EXCELLENT  QUALITY 

436-33  EISA  64raaCHE  $3214 

434-15  EISA  6«8aO^E  $2849 

484-33  ISA  64K&CACHE  $1179 

484-15  ISA  tmaCHi  $1725 
384-33  AT  CACHE  IDE/2S/IP  64KB  CACHE   $  1 092 

384-15  BCP  4-JKSCHCHE  $9« 

384-15  BMP  OKBCflCHE  $720 

FLOPPY  DISK  DRIVES 


GOLDSTAR 


1423  VGA   14"  .51  DP  $290 

1425  VGA    14"  .39  DP  $349 

1430  VGA    M"  .11  DP  $395 

1450  MULTISYNOSUPER  VGA  14"  .3 1  DP  S41S 

1460  1024  X  768  INTERLACED  .28  DP  $440 

MODEMS/FAX  CARDS 


5  1/4"  1.2MB  HALF  HEIGHT 

3  1/2"  1.44MB 
3  1/1"  710K 

NEW!!! 

3  1/2"  4MB 

SCANNERS 


PROLAB 


256  COLOR  400  DPI 

256  CRAY  SCALE  400  DPI 

OCR  FOR  COLOR/GltAY  SCANNER 


LOGITECH 


SCANMAN 1S4  40CDPI W/OCR 

$349     SCANMAN  PLUS 
$349     SCANMAN  PLUS  FOR  PSn'S 
$89     CATChWORDOCR 


MARSTEK 


W3'     M-6000CGRAIMBOWW/OCR 
*l"     M-800W/CAT  READER  OCR 


TAPE  BACKUP 


COLORADO 


JUMBO  IIOHB  INTERNAL 
JUMBO  250HB  INTERNAL 
QFA-500  500HB  INTERNAL 


GAME  CARDS 


2  PORTS  AT  BUS 
2  PORTS  PS2BUS 


$39 
$59 


MEMORY  CHIPS  MODULES      REASONS  TO  BUY  FROM 


IXI-70NS 

IXI-30NS 

IXI-IOONS 

1S6X4-60NS 

156X4-I00NS 

256X4-I20NS 

156XI-30NS 

2S6XI-I00NS 


$5.70 
$5.50 
$S.1S 
$5.50 
$5.25 
$5.00 
$105 
$1.85 


156XI-IJONS 
156XI-ISONS 
44X4- eONS 
i4X4-IOONS 
44X4-I20NS 
t4XI-IOONS 
44XI-I20NS 
44X1- 1  SONS 


$1.40 
$1.40 
$3.00 
$175 
$2.50 
$1.75 
$1.60 
$1.15 


SIHM^IPP  MODULES 


$74 

$77 
$73 

$159 


$507 

$299 

$39 


S3BS 

$149 

$215 
$115 


$599 

$259 


$249 


4X9-70NS        $147.00    256X9-70NS  $11.00 

4X9-eONS        $230.00    156X9-80NS  $19.00 

IX9-7DNS         $59.00    256X9-I00NS  $17.00 

IX9-80NS         $53.00    256X9-I20NS  $15.00 
IX9-I00NS        $51.00 

SIPPS  ADD  $3.00  EACH 


MATH  CO-PROCESSORS 


THENEWGENEMTTON.'!! 

3tl-DAY  MONEY  BACK  GUARANTH 

UFETIME  WARRANTY 

US83C87-I4         $199    US33C87-13  $199 

US33C87-20         $199    US33C67-I4SX      $129 

USS3ai7-}$         $m    US33Ce7-20SX     $149 


B3D87-I4 

$109 

83087-31 

83D87-20 

$109 

83S87-I6 

83087-15 

$109 

83SB7-20 

80187-14 

$249 

80387-1 6SX 

80187-20 

$149 

B0ie7-20SX 

80187-25 

$149 

80287-10 

80187-11 

$149 

B0287XL 

3C87-I6 
3C87-20 
3C87-25 
1C87-33 
1C87-16SX 


$109 
$209 
$209 
$209 
$159 


3C87-10SX 

2C87-8 

2C87-iO 

2C87-t2 

2C87-20 


$119 
$159 

$169 


$199 
5109 
$139 

$149 


$149 
$79 
$99 
$119 
$139 


SOMETHING  NOT  USTED? 


WE  HAVE  HUNDREDS 


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10 


FIVE  YEAR  PRODUCT 

WARRANTY  GUARANTEE 


UPGRADE  TIPS  FOR 
PERSONAL  COMPUTERS 


I,  Max  out  your  motherboard  first 
Consult  your  computer  owner's 
manual  to  find  out  which  kind  of  chips 
your  computer  takes.  If  your  manual 
IS  not  available,  count  the  chip  or  simm 
sockets  and  get  the  part  number  of  the 
existing  chips.  Then  call  us. 

1.  Ail  LIM  4.0  expansion  boartk  are 
not  created  equal.  Make  sure  the 
board  you  wish  to  purchase  can  run 
your  applications  and  has  the  capacity 
you  need. 

3,  If  your  short  on  expansion  slots, 
you  should  consider  a  board  tfiat  has 
I/O  ports  to  allow  future  external 
expansion. 

4,  If  you  plan  on  upgrading  to  a 
more  powerful  computer  in  the 
future,  you  may  wish  to  purchase  chips 
^  enough  so  they  can  be  used  inyour 
new  system  when  you  upgrade  at  a 
later  date. 


800678-8648  5  YEAR  WARRANTY  ON  PARTS  714  258-2818  FAX 


UNIVERSAL  MEMORY  PRODUaS  1 54 II  RED  HILL  AVENUE  SUITE  B  TUSTIN.CA  92680  714  258-2018 

NO  SLRCHARGE  ON  VISWMASHRCARD.  AMEX  ADD  4S    fURCHASE  ORDERS  ACCEPTED  FROM  QUAURED  miS   IVS,  RETOCKiNG  FEE  ON  AJ.  NOW)BKTM  REOJRNS     PRICES  SU^Ea  TO  CHANGE 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  195 


TEST  LAB 


The  machine's  floppy  drive 
and  expansion  ports  are  readily 
accessible,  as  is  the  mother- 
board. I  had  no  trouble  hooking 
up  my  VGA  monitor  to  get  full  col- 
or, though  the  Super-LT5's 
screen  proved  marvelously  well 
lighted,  well  defined,  and  easy  to 
adjust — just  right  for  my  v/riting. 
Brightness  and  contrast  were  ad- 
justable via  two  smoothly  sliding 
controls  adjacent  to  the  screen, 
a  more  convenient  location  than 
I'm  accustomed  to  seeing  even 
on  full-size  desktop  monitors. 


bleshooting  tips;  however,  it 
should  have  an  index. 

There  are  no  cables  to  install 
and  no  screws  to  screw,  and  get- 
ting the  machine  up  and  running 
takes  no  more  or  less  time  or  ef- 
fort than  with  a  comparable  desk- 
top model.  Included  with  the  Hyun- 
dai Super-LT5  are  DOS  disks  and 
a  reference  disk  that  includes  Win- 
dows and  OS/2  drivers. 

The  Hyundai  Super-LT5  has  a 
built-in  MS-DOS  shell  program, 
which  is  a  nice  feature.  It's  too 
bad  this  particular  shell  program 


HYUNDAI  ELECTRONICS 

AMERICA 
166  Baypolnte  Phwy. 
M      San  Jose,  CA  95134 
ISOO]  727-6972 
List  Price:  $3,995 
Street  Price:  $2,329 

n 


You'll 
find  expansion 
jacks  around  the  lap- 
top's sides.  Besides  the  port  for 
the  external  monitor,  there  are 
ports  for  a  keyboard,  a  5%-inch 
floppy  disk  drive  to  supplement 
the  built-in  3'/s-inch  drive,  and  a 
printer.  I  tried  hooking  up  my  desk- 
top IBfvl-compatible's  keyboard 
to  the  Hyundai  Super-LT5,  but  its 
recessed  external  keyboard  jack 
proved  too  deep  for  my  angled 
plug.  You  can,  however,  plug  in 
an  internal  modem, 

The  laptop  operates  very  qui- 
etly, emitting  just  enough 
squawks  to  let  you  know  when  it's 
reading  a  disk.  I  found  the  inter- 
nal speaker  to  be  adequate,  per- 
haps just  a  little  too  quiet. 

The  user's  guide  provides 
clear,  basic  guidance,  with  a  par- 
ticularly helpful  chapter  of  trou- 

40        COMPUTE 


is  unnecessarily  complicated,  re- 
quiring unnatural  key  combina- 
tions when  a  simpler  menu  prob- 
ably would've  done  the  trick. 
Again,  it's  a  nice  feature  to  have; 
it  just  doesn't  make  getting 
around  in  DOS  as  easy  as  it 
could. 

Though  not  astoundingly  fast, 
the  Hyundai  Super-LT5  generally 
works  quickly  and  efficiently  In- 
stalling software  onto  the  hard 
drive  takes  relatively  little  time. 

The  battery  for  the  Hyundai  Su- 
per-LT5  takes  four  to  six  hours  to 
charge  and  lasts  for  one  to  three 
hours.  Given  the  machine's  pow- 
er, that  seems  reasonable,  even 
though  it  would  be  nice  if  it  could 
hold  out  longer  on  a  charge.  One 
problem  I  encountered  using  the 
laptop  on  both  electrical  and  bat- 
tery power  was  that  after  a  while 
it  got  uncomfortably  hot  under- 


neath, especially  when  I  was  us- 
ing it  while  wearing  shorts. 

Fortunately,  I  never  subjected 
the  Hyundai  Super-LT5  to  the 
toughest  test  I  ever  gave  a  laptop 
during  my  days  as  a  newspaper 
reporter:  skidding  it  across  a  con- 
crete parking  lot  after  accidental- 
ly tripping  in  the  dark  during  a 
late-night  run  for  police  news. 
Even  so,  it  appears  to  be  a  solid- 
ly built,  durable  tool,  capable  of 
performing  almost  as  well  as  a 
pricey  desktop  computer  but  with- 
out the  usual  constraints;  it's  pow- 
erful and  portable. 

EDDIE  HUFFMArNJ 

LEADING  EDGE 
D/LT3a6SX  PLUS 

Nothing  makes  the  time  go  by  on 
a  long  plane  ride  like  a  good  lap- 
top, and  whether  you  use  yours 
for  spreadsheets  or  Star  Control, 
the  Leading  Edge  D/LT386SX 
Plus  certainly  beats  a  talkative 
stranger  when  it  comes  to  air- 
borne companionship.  Whatever 
your  reason  for  carrying  a  laptop, 
you'll  v/ant  to  balance  weight,  dis- 
play readability,  and  price 
against  its  usefulness.  A  close 
look  at  this  laptop  reveals  a  per- 
plexing mix  of  fine  and  somewhat 
below-average  features. 

On  the  plus  side,  the  D/LT 
does  run  a  16-f\/IHz  386  proces- 
sor, providing  the  necessary  mi- 
cro horsepower  to  make  Win- 
dows run  at  a  usable  speed,  and 
the  40MB  hard  drive  provides 
more  than  ample  storage  space 
for  on-the-road  applications  and 
their  data  files.  The  3y2-inch 
1.44MB  floppy  drive  port  faces 
you,  so  you  can  keep  an  eye  on 
disk  activity.  All  the  standard 
ports — serial,  parallel,  and  PS/2 
mouse — further  enhance  the  D/ 
LT's  versatility.  For  you  avid  tele- 
communicators,  the  roomy  mo- 
dem bay  looks  as  if  it  should  eas- 
ily accommodate  the  Leading 
Edge  S199  proprietary  modem. 
Should  you  have  the  chance  to 
plug  the  D/LT  into  a  color  moni- 
tor, you  won't  be  disappointed  by 


the  graphics;  this  laptop's  crisp- 
VGA  640  X  480  pixel  output 
does  justice  to  your  games  as 
well  as  your  chart  generators. 

A  winner  all  around,  the  D/LT's 
keyboard  doesn't  complicate  typ- 
ing by  shrinking  its  keys;  they're 
the  same  size  as  those  of  larger, 
stay-at-home  machines.  While 
the  keyboard  won't  detach  from 
the  D/LT  entirely,  it  does  have  the 
surprising  ability  to  sled  forward 
away  from  the  rest  of  the  ma- 
chine, putting  just  enough  dis- 
tance between  you  and  the  LCD 


There's  more  to  testing  the  life  of 
a  laptop  battery  than  turning  it 
on  and  letting  the  unit  run  until 
the  power  gives  out.  To  truly 
test  a  manufacturer's  claim  of  bat- 
tery-powered operating  time, 
you  have  to  lest  the  battery  as 
if  it  were  in  normal  use. 

Almost  all  laptops  use  re- 
chargeable ni-cad  {nickel-cadmi- 
um) batteries,  with  a  flat  voltage 
discharge.  That  simply  means 
that  voltage  discharges  constant- 
ly until  the  battery  runs  dry.  For 
example,  a  six-volt  ni-cad  bat- 
tery will  give  a  constant  six-volt 
discharge  up  until  the  moment 
it  dies,  unlike,  say,  flashlight  bat- 
teries that  gradually  lose  power. 
Ni-cad  batteries  also  operate 
well  in  low  temperatures,  unlike 
their  acid-based  automobile 
counterparts  that  tend  to  be  slug- 
gish on  very  cold  mornings. 

Our  test  lab  charges  the  ni- 
cad  battery  according  to  the  man- 
ufacturer's exact  instructions. 
Once  the  battery  is  fully 
charged,  the  laptop  is  put  to 
use,  and  its  between-charge 
lifespan  is  tested  using  COM- 
PUTE'S battery-testing  program. 
The  program  monitors  the  lap- 
top constantly  until  it  completely 
gives  out,  so  the  exact  power- 
up  and  power-down  times  can 
be  recorded. 

But  there's  more  to  it  than 
that.  To  realistically  simulate  lap- 


screen  for  a  comfortable  working 
relationship  at  your  hotel  room 
desk.  Well,  maybe  not  quite  far 
enough  for  some;  the  glare  from 
this  laptop's  8x6  inch  backlit  dis- 
play can  quickly  tire  your  eyes. 
Compared  to  many  other  laptop 
displays,  this  one's  downright  fa- 
tiguing. And  despite  a  purported 
antiglare  feature,  text  on  the  D/ 
LT  display,  like  text  on  many  lap- 
top displays  I've  looked  at,  is 
best  read  in  indirect  light.  The 
brightness  and  contrast  sliders 
do  little  to  improve  the  situation. 


Also  problematic  is  the  screen's 
tendency  to  fall  forward  at  the 
slightest  disturbance  and  to  resist 
proper  positioning.  Setting  the  dis- 
play  in  place  often  requires  mul- 
tipie  attempts.  Practice  patience 
here;  the  manufacturer  warns 
against  bending  the  screen  back 
too  far.  though  it  remains  a  con- 
stant temptation.  A  more  effective 
locking  and  tilting  mechanism  is 
definitely  in  order. 

Those  traveling  computer- 
philes who  remember  the  heyday 
of  the  KayPro  luggable  won't 


HOW  THE  POWER  GOES 

top  use,  our  testing  program 
runs  the  laptop  disk  drive  in  a  se- 
lected duty  cycle.  For  instance, 
in  a  40-percent  duty  cycle,  the 
drive  runs  for  four  minutes  of 
continuous  disk  access  and 
then  rests  for  six  minutes.  The  cy- 
cle is  repeated  constantly  until 
the  battery  dies.  The  test  pro- 
gram's timer  constantiy  saves  to 
disk,  so  when  the  system  is  boot- 
ed up  again  after  recharging  or 
plugging  in,  the  time  has  been 
recorded  for  reference.  A  stop- 
watch serves  as  backup. 

If  a  laptop  has  an  automatic 
rest  mode  or  screen  blanker, 
someone  physically  monitors 
the  computer,  tapping  it  every 


screen  cycle  to  return  the 
screen  to  normal  mode. 

Once  the  battery  dies,  the  lab 
repeats  the  test  two  more  times 
in  its  entirety,  beginning  with  a 
battery  recharge.  After  testing 
each  laptop  three  times,  the  lab 
uses  a  spreadsheet  to  calculate 
mean  times  for  each  battery. 

Most  batteries  are  going  to 
yield  about  the  same  amount  of 
running  time  because  they're  es- 
sentially the  same  product — re- 
chargeable ni-cad  cells.  The  re- 
al difference  is  in  how  you  use 
your  laptop,  what  type  of  micro- 
chip runs  it,  and  the  machine's 
built-in  power-saving  features. 

—JILL  CHAMPION 


Battery  Depletion  Test 

4 
3 

s  - 

X 
1 

o 

1 

1 

!        I 

m 

■ 

J 

1 

\ 

l^^'^'^^'^^x^-^S 

\ 

H 

»          ^                   >^    %    % 

%^ 

41 


«0 

SURCHARGE 

ON  CREDIT 

CARD 


MaxFax 
9624 


•  PowBrful,  intelligent,  Group  3  9600  bps  Fax 

&  Hayes  compatible  2400  bps  Modemn  Card. 

•  Auto  Direct  compatibility 

•  On-Board  Microprocessor  &  software  package 

•  Supports  several  popular  printer  &  scanners 

•  Compatible  with  IBM  PC,  XT,  AT,  PS/2 
Model  30,  Compaq  Oeskpro  386  and  all 
other  IBM  compatible  PCs.  Compact 
half-card  size 
to  lit  most 
portable  & 


|f;^^arstelc|  J28 

HAND  SCANNER 


Complete  Package  Includes... 

•  Mars  123  5'  Scarinsr  &  Interface  Card 

•  Scan  Kit  Utility  Software  &  User's  Manual 

•  Cat  Reader  OCR  Software 
&  PC  Paintbrush  Plus 

•  One  Year  Warranty 


^109 


95 


The  MousePen 


A 


Uses  existing  drivers  in  Windows® 
and  works  witii  Microsoft  or 
IBM  OS/2  drivers.  Includes... 

•  f^enu  Maker  utility  softwa/e  for 
non-mouse  applications 
•  TelePAINT®  cobr  paint  program 
with  VGA  support 
\       •IBM  PS/2  Mouseport  Connector 
"i\     •  Adapter  for  DB9  and  DB25 
'  *  serial  ports 

•  5-1/4"  &  3-1/2"  diskettes 

•  User's  Manual 

•  Custom 
Pen  Holder 


^38 


FAX/MODEM 

MACRONIX.  INC.  U  A ll U  V 

For  IBM  Conf)patible  Desktop  &  Portables 

MaxLite/PC 


•  Pocket  Size  Portable  Fax/Modem 

•  Send  &  Receive  Fax/Modem  with  9600  bps 
G3  Connpatible  Fax  &  Hayes 
Compatible  2400  bps 
Modem 

•  Interface  with  the  PC 
Via  the  RS232  Serial  Port 

•  Optional 
Software 
Converts  the 
MaxLfte  into 
a  Macintosh 
version 

•  Operates 
on  AC  or 
Batteiy 
Power 


CHiNON  ScanFAX96/ 
DS-2000  SCANNER 

9600  bps  Transmission  Speed, 
Group  3  Compatibl9 

COMPLETE  PACKAGE 
INCLUDES... 

•  Chinon  OS-2000 
Scanner 

•  ScanFAX  96 
Add-In  Board 

•  Facsimile  Software 

•  DS-2000  Utility 
Software 

•  Scanner  Cable 

•  AC  Adapter 


GALAXY  EXTERNAL 
NETWORKS      unQDEM 

UFO  V.32  TURB0/V.42bis 


MaxFax 

96Z4LT-T 

FOR  TOSHIBA  LAPTOPS 


•  9600  bps  Group  3  Compatible  Facsimile 

•  2400  bps  Hayes  Compatible  Modem 

•  T1000SE,T1000XE,  T1200,T1200XE, 
T1600,T3100SX  &T3200SX 

•  Menu  Driven 

•  Multiple  Phone  books 
w/  Edit  Function 

•  Wordprocessing 
&  Graphics 
Programs 


^288 


QMS  IS  300 

FULL  PAGE  SCANNER 


•  300  dpi 

•  6  seconds  per  page 

•  Complete  with 
Controller  Card, 
Cable,  &  Graphics  Software 

OCR  Software  Add  $149.00 


*328 


Compatible  with  all  existing,  stand.  2-wire,  full 

duplex,  dial  up  modems  upto33400bj^ 

MNP'  Class  5  -With  Error-Free  Transmission 

up  to  19200bps 

Alphanumeric  Dial/Name  Dial 

AutoSeled,  User  Friendly 

Auto  Redial/Quick  RediaS 

Satellite  Capability 

Future  Expansion 

Capability 


Hl8 


COLOR  PLOTTER 


•  Handles  paper  sizes  up  to  1 4'  X  26-1/2' 

•  High  Resolution  Matrix  Printer  Output  ol 
240X4SO  dpi 

•  Four  Resident  Character  Fonts  w/ 1 9  optional 
fonts  available 

•  Emulates  Epson, 
IBM  &  Diablo 

•  Large  Alphanumeric 
LED  display 


«548 


WE  ACCEPT.. 


We  buy  and  sell  excess  inventories..call  or  fax  list 

20308  Gramercy  Place,  Torrance,  CA  90501 

(213)  328-3344  ■  FAX:  (213)  328-2907  •  (800)  345-5568 

WE  ACCEPT:  NSI  CHARGE,  VISA,  MC,  AMEX,  COO,  PO's  from  qualified  finms.  20%  restocking  fee  on  all  non- 
delective  retums.  All  returns/adjustments  must  be  made  within  15  da^.  CA  residents  Add  7%  Sales  Tax  • 
PRICES  SUBJECT  TO  CHANGE  •  $8.50  Minimum  Shipping. 


Not  VISA       fWwt 

CHARGE    — —  l'<P<|r 


At^lERICAN 
EXPRESS 


CALL 
TOLL  FREE: 


WO 

SURCHARGE 

ON  CREDIT 

CARD 


KIFHn  Vtmm^Pt94siefy^ 


IBM  PS/2  MEMORY 


HliMil.'ililillllil 


CAT.* 

30FS34S 
30FS3a) 
6450372 
64S0EO1 
6450604 
6450608 
34Fe933 
645037S 
6450379 


DESCRIPnOM  NSI 

51 ZKB  Upgrade  PS/2  30  2S6  44.00 

2MBUpgtai)ePSe302a6  126.00 

2MBMOTwyAd3pteiG4503fi7  395,00 

1MBaMUPS2  70-E81;l21  68.00 

2MB  SIMM  PS,2  50Z-70  10800 

2MBS!MfJPS,'270-A21  12800 

4MB  SIMM  PSffiSSSXiBSSX  279,00 

1MB  Man,  BO  PS/2  80^1  96,00 

ZMBMwi.  BDP&2Sail1-]21  158.00 


CAT.  I    - 

6451060 
6450605 

34F3077 


DESCRIPTION 

NSJ 

150     130 

in 

ao       70 

to 

ISO 

12D  iQD   an 

70     n 

4MBMem.BDPSa80-A2IA31 

293.00 

2Sei8 

15.00  17.00 

19.00 

22.00 

64x1       .90 

S20   ISO 

J-eMB  Xpand  Mm.  PS12  70iS0 

348.00 

2S&<9 

t7.C0  19.00 

21.00 

24.00 

E4x4 

200  2.15  2M 

IV/2MB 

IMBxS 

5050 

51.00   60.00 

65.00 

K6)(1     I2S 

).40   1.60    1£5 

210 

2-UMBXpand  BO,  PSffi  70480 

388.00 

IMSxQ 

53.50 

54.95   65,00 

68.00 

2S6rf 

5.35  5.70  6.00 

675  7J0 

«/2MB 

iMm 

259.00279.00 

309.00 

1MBx1 

5.45  5.65 

6i0  7iO 

2-14MBXpandaD.PSffi50-65SX 
W/2MB 

388.00 

4M9I9 

279.00  2G9.00 

299.00 

CNlL  for  PS/i  MEMORY 


LASER  PRINTER  MEMORY 


CAT.t  DESCRIPTION  HS1 

107331-001  512KB  Upgrade  Pdbble  III  38.00 

I07J32-001  2MB  Uporads  PofteKe  III  118.00 

107651JM1  tUBModJePcrlayeSeS  218.00 

107653-001  4UeXpandMaii.Po<tk]le3ee  630.00 

107654401  4MBMmn.XlansonPortablo386  630.00 

lOeoeMCI  tMBXpaidM«nofyDP3a6-16  288.00 

106070001  4UBXpaidM«iiayDPi56-16  630.00 

108071-001  1WBMomMyUp9iadoDP386-1G  (08.00 

108072-00)  4MB  Mmwy  UpQiade  DP3S6-1 6  438.00 

110235O01  IMG  Memory  BD  31 286  leaOO 

110257.CO(  4M6Wotoo'B0S11286  630.00 

I12S34«)I  4MBMj)dj6DPJ66S-16  298.M 

111131-001  1MB  Module  DP3effifl6E.  386  2ft25E  96.00 

111132-001  4MBModul8DP26c6£,3S620-25£  228.00 

111831-001  1MBXpwdM«ii.DP386S-ie  148.00 

111634«)t  4MBXpandM«n.DP386S.16  358.00 


CATt 

113644^1 

11364WM1 

1I3«4»»1 

115144-001 

116561-001 

1l65eS{(l1 

117077-001 

117081-001 

1I7M1-0O2 

1ia304JM1 

118304001 

118305001 

11868M01 

116689001 

116690001 

118700001 


DESCRIPTION 

1MB  Xpand  Mem.  DP3SS  20E.  25£ 


NSI 

148.01 
4MBXpandM«ii.  DP3e6  20e.25E  358.00 
1MB  Module  DP386S-16  ItO.CO 

1MB  Module  DP136-33,48G-25.  SysprolSO.OO 
SMB  ModJs  456-25,  Syjpio  899.00 

32ME  tAjdUo  ClP4e6-25,  Sraxo  4.990.00 
5l2KBMiim.  BDPwtaHoLTE 
1MB  Man.  BO  Putable  LTE266 
2MB  Manory  BO  PcrUfcl«  LTE  286 
1MB  Module  tec  SLTn86 
2MB  Module  (a  SI.Tn86 
4MB  Module  (a  SIT/1S6 
1MB  Module  0P288N,368N 
2MB  Module  DP388N.  3363-20 
4MB  Modie  DP2e8N.  K6N.  3865-20  396.00 
0-4MB  Eip-BD  DP286N,  3e6N  1 08.00 


1l9.m 
99.00 
156.00 
174.00 
270.00 
830.00 
90.00 
166.00 


Ctll 

m34748  IMB 

H33475e  2MB 

H33477B  4MB 

K33443B  IMB 

H33444B  2MB 

H3344Se  4M6 

EP1000  1MB 

EP2000  2MB 

EP4000  4WB 

T11000  1MB 

TB1000  1MB 

TB2000  2MB 

TB3000  3MB 

TB4000  4MB 


WORKS  WITH 

HPUMfJ«IlP,lll,IIID 
HPLaswJstllP.IIUIID 
HPUs«Je(llP,lll,IIID 
HPUserJetlltllD 
HaawJelllillB 
HfT.»«rJelll4)ID 
Epson  EPL-6<X)0 
Epson  EPI.-60QD 
Epson  EPL-axX) 
Texas  kis^unent 
l^oUserPS 
Tofihiba  Page  Ustf  8 
TceHa  Page  User  6 
Tofihte  Page  U^er  6 
Tosliiba  Page  Laser  G 


»Sf 
99-SS 
13955 
214.95 

m.m 

13995 
214.ft5 
129.00 
169.00 
249.00 
129.CO 

118.00 
164.00 
208.00 
248.00 


Ctll 

1039136  1MB 

1039137  2MB 
1038675  3.5MB 
M600S  1MB 
MeOOe  4MB 
SS3-1300  1MB 
SS3.1SeO  2MB 
N/A  4MB 
PA1000  IMB 

PA2000  2MB 

PA3000  3MB 

PA4000  4MB 


WORKS  wrm  nsi 

IBMLa!a4019:4019E  129.00 
IBM  Laser  4019:14O19E  169.00 
IBM  Laser  401  %4019E  229.00 
Apple  LaserWriter  llfrnx  85.00 
Apple  LaserWriter  IWD(319.O0 
Ca™LBP.Efl  119.00 

Ca»nLBP-6ll  189.00 

Canon  LBP-6II  269.00 

PanasorW:iO(P4420;  118.00 
K)(P445a 

Paiusorio  KXP4420;  164,00 
KXP44S0i 

PanasorkKXP«20; 
IO<P44SOi 

PaiBsoric  KXP4420; 
KXP4450i 


208.00 
248.00 


TOSHIRA  MEMORY 


NEC  MEMORY 


CAT.I 

PC6-PA7I371I 
PC7-PA8301U 
PC8-PA8302tJ 
PC9-PAS340U 
PC9-PA8341U 
PC10-PAe304U 

PC12-PA8307U 


DESCRIPTION  NSI 

3MB  Mem  Card  Potable  T3200  228.00 

2MB  Mem  Card  Potable  T51 00  188.00 

2MB  MemCard  Pot^e  Tl  SX)  )62.00 

512K  Man  Card  PortibleT3100E  120.00 

2MB  Hera  Card  Potable  TllOOe  168,00 

2MB  Mem  Card  Pot^kile  168.00 
TS200  Toshba  Osstto  T8500 

2MB  Mam  Card  PorUUeT3200SX  168.W 


CAT.  I              DESCRIPTION  NSI 

PC12-PA8309U  4Ma  Man.  Card  Portable  TSJOOSX  389.00 

PC14PA8306U2Ha  Hem  Card  Portable  T1200XE  168.00 

PC14-PAe311U1HBHaTiCardPortabto  218.00 

T1000SE:TlOOOXE 

PC14PA8312U2HB  Mem  Card  Portable  276.00 

TlOOOSEiTIDOOXE 

PC15^A8306U  2MB  Mem  Card  Portable  162.00 

T3100SX 


Call 

APCH655X 
APCH656X 

APCH657X 

APCH850E 

APCHe52E 


DESCRIPTION  NSI 

2MBMo<fPowomate388^    458.00 

SMB  Eipanson  Board  1,1 90.00 

Powermale  386)25 

1MB  Bffi»  Board  1,250.00 

Powermale  38&2S 

IMBExpoisonSoafd  24000 

Powermale  SX  Plus 

4MB  Eipaiskm  Board  690,00 

Powermale  SX  Bus 


Call  DESCRIPTIDN                        KSI 

PC21.21  1  MB  CD  ProSoeed  286^868X245,00 

PC2t-22  4MB  CD  ProSpeed  286386SX  569.00 

PC21-26  2MB  CD  ProSpeed  2S6;386SX  309.00 

PC31-21  2MB  CD  ProSpeed  386           319.00 

PC31-22  8MBCDProS{»ed386          1,190.00 

KrN2000  2MB  Expulsion  Board             440.00 

/SX  powermale  SX  Plus 

KTtBOOO  SMS  Btpxiam  Board            1,190.00 

/SX  PowermateSXRus 


AST  MEMORY 


HP  MEMORY 


CAT.  I 

5«S10001 
500SIOO02 


600510003 
500510004 


500610007 
500510008 


500510010 


DESCRIPTION  NS) 

512KUp^dKjlPiem286FASTRAM    39.00 

2MB  Upjrd  Kil  Prom  WS  386SX;        1 18,00 

WS  268;  Bravo  286  j  366SX;  Rampage 

flus  286;  Admlj  Piem  S/2;  Ram  Admlg; 

Advantage 

1  MB  Upgrd  Kit  Premiura  186  98,00 

4MB  UpgtdKlPrwn  386.  Rampage    31O00 

Hu3/MC:Advntg  288 1386 

1  MB  Up7d  Kit  Pran  386C:  3S6n  6       85,00 

4MB  upgrd  Kit  Piem  3860;  366/1 6       23000 

Advanced  FASTRAM;  FAStboard  386 

51 2K  Upgrd  Kit  Pr6mWS38eSXi      39,M 

WS  286:  Btavo  2S6,  Rampage  «  286 


CATt 
SCW10011 
500709«I1 
500709001 
50071 8O01 
50071 M02 


500718004 
500760001 
S00818OO4 

ASrSX20 


DESCRIPTION 

128K  Upgrd  Kit  Bravo  288 

512K  Upgrd  Kit  Advn  12;  Rampage  PC 

512K  Upgrd  Kit  RmpageRirsflUC 

1  MB  Mod,  Pran  38625  8  3e6SX/16 

1  MB  Mod,  Prem  388(33  -25;  SX/1 6; 

486/33;25T;  2SrE;  25, 25£; 

Adapter  Board  500722-004 

2MB  Upgid  Kit  Prem  488  Series 

tMBKt  Prem  486  Series 

1-16MB  Exp  Bd  Prem  1S&25J1; 

Pie!n486's 

lMBMalPremll386SX/20 


NSI 
40.00 
40.00 
40.00 
65,00 
75.00 


186.00 
870.x 
450.00 

84.00 


CaL  I         DESCRIPTION  NSI 

D13S4A      2MBUp-KilVec»aO£'16S     114.00 

4ES12PC 
01640A       IMBUp-KitVECTRA  62.00 

OSiZOPC;  RS25PC  S  20C 
D1642A       IMBUp-KilVECTRA  234.00 

Q3i20PC;RS25PC*20C 


Call    DESCRIPTION  NSI 

D154aA  IMBUp-KJlVECTTUkOS/ieS  6200 
DI540A  iMBUp-KKVECTRAQSneS  62.M 
D2150A1MBModVECTRA<S6PC  78.00 

D2l51A4MBModVECTflA486PC  26^00 
Det52A SMB  Hod  VECTRA386®;486PC  900.00 
D2381A2M8  Hod  VECTTU  388/25  PC      144.00 


IAIJ,',lil:yi:lil:l;likl;I.MirTTMmi 


ZENITH  MEMORY 

CAT.I 

DESCfllPnON                                NSI 

CAT.I          DESCRIPTION 

NSI 

ZA160*l 

2MB  CardSuper  Sport  SX;2B6E       240.00 

ZA3034ME2  4MB  Card  Turbo  Sporl  3a6E 

590.00 

ZAieM6 

1  MB  Cad  Super  Spot  286: 288£      160,00 

ZA3eO0ME     lMBMod,Z-386/20-25-33-33E 

79.00 

ZA1B0-B6 

2MB  Card  Super  SporlSX  (ALPHA)  240.00 

ZA36Q0MG    2MGMod,Z-38&!0-25-33 

13000 

ZAieO-87 

2MB  Csd  Super  SpoitSX  (BETA)     240.00 

ZA3e00ME     1  MB  Mod,  Z-38S20-25-13-33E 

79.00 

ZA1034ME 

IMB  Card  Turbo  Sport  386E            199.00 

ZA3800MK     4MB  Mod.  Z-38t20-2S-33-33E 

288.00 

2A1C34ME2 

4HB  Card  Tirto  Sport  386E             590.00 

BOCAR  A  M/XT-Provides  up  to  2MB  o( 
aparxied  rT«moy  to  8  bit  bus.  Operates  up  b  1 2 
MHz.  U5e5  2S6Kb-fiAM-wili  OK  „.,,...  St20.CC 

wi1h512)( 139.00 

«n1h2HB 219.00 

BOCARAMfAT  PLUS-Prov,desupio 
6MB  ot  aidenied.  exparKted  or  badrfil  memoy. 
Opaates  up  to  33MK2  and  is  sset  Uyu  soltware. 

Uses  256K  D.RAM-i«ilt  OK $1 19.00 

*ith2Ma 219.00 

BOCARAWAT-l/0  PLUS-Pio«d9sup 

Id  4M8  o(  XlBided,  Xpanded  o  baddil  itemay. 

For  16  bit  bus.  Opaaiss  up  b  33  MH:  arid  is  set 

tiru  software,  has  saiai  and  parelEe/  port  Uses 

IMBD-RAM- 

witiOK t149.IM 

»rlh2MB 249.00 


BOCARAM  30-Provides  up  lo  2Me  of 
a^unded  memory  lor  IBM  PS/2  model  £5, 30  and 
8l]|bu$  uliiaig  3.5*  lloppy  dislis.  Uses  2S6K  D- 

RAM-  wiDi  OK (1 59.00 

witti  2MB 249.00 

BOCARAM  S0/60-Provid«suptii4UB 

BMpaiKled,  extended  o  baddfll  monorv  fo  f^S2 

model  50, 60.  Uses  1  MB  D-RAH- 

wil!i  OK $149.00 

wilh  2MB 249.00 

*ilh4Mfl 349.00 

BOCARAM  SOZ-Protides  up  lo  2M6, 0 
waKsbte,  aqwided  or  extended  mnnory  fo 
ISM,  PS/2  modd  50,  SOZ,  60.  Uses  1 1 H8  D- 
RAM- 

srithOK $129.00 

with  2MB 229.00 


Calaloa/manufycturer's  part  numbers  are  for  your  convenience.  Alt  products  are  3rd  party  manufactured.  100%  Compatible. 
ALL  MEMORY  PRODUCTS  COME  WITH  5  YEAR  UNCONDITIONAL  WARRANTY.  CALL  FOR  QUANTITY  PRICES. 


WE  ACCEPT... 


L  CHAflGE 


We  buy  and  sell  excess  inventories..call  or  fax  list 

20308  Gramercy  Place,  Torrance,  CA  90501 

(213)  328-3344  •  FAX:  (213)  328-2907  •  (800)  345-5568 

WE  ACCEPT:  NSI  CHARGE,  VISA,  MC.  AMEX,  COD,  PO's  from  qualified  firms.  20%  restocking  fee  on  all  rm- 
defective  relums.  W!  refums^Sustments  must  be  made  wfthin  15  days.  CA  residents  Add  7%  Sales  Tax  ■ 
PRICES  SUBJECT  TO  CHANGE  ■  $8,50  Minimum  SSiipping. 


AMERICAN 
EXPRESS 


Cirde  Reader  Service  Number  147 


TEST  LAB 


much  mind  carrying  the  hefty  D/ 
LT  for  short  distances.  After  all, 
this  computer's  13  pounds 
doesn't  compare  to  the  weight 
and  bulk  of  most  earlier  porta- 
bles. More  contemporary  users, 
though,  might  not  want  the  bur- 
den of  this  much  weight,  espe- 
cially in  this  age  of  386  note- 
books. The  D/LT  thankfully  bal- 
ances on  its  edge  quite  well. 
Even  if  the  D/LT  should  fall  over, 
I  wouldn't  worry  much  about  dam- 
age— this  machine's  case  could 
stop  bullets. 

This  laptop  doesn't  spare  you 
the  cold  reality  of  mysterious  bat- 
tery charges.  You  should  expect 
about  two  hours  of  use  per  full  re- 
charge of  the  ni-cad  battery  Ex- 
pect less  if  you  access  your  hard 
drive  and  floppy  frequently  Lead- 
ing Edge  has  built  in  some  fea- 
tures to  help  you  conserve  pow- 
er and  keep  track  of  the  D/LT's  bat- 
tery life,  Left  unattended,  the  D/ 
LT  dims  its  screen  to  conserve 
power.  A  battery  check  light  flash- 
es when  power's  low,  and  if  you 
don't  soon  save  and  shut  down, 
you  might  damage  your  hard 
drive  and  will  certainly  lose  your 
work. 

Alarm  software,  such  as  Bat- 
tery Watch,  warns  you  when  bat- 
tery failure  will  occur,  but  you'll 
need  to  buy  such  software  sepa- 

44        COMPUTE 


LEADING  EDGE  PRODUCTS 
117  Flanders  Rd. 
Westborough,  MA  01581 
1800)  874-3340 
List  Price:  $2,198.00  tor  40MB; 

$2,599.00  for  lOOMfl 
Street  Price:  $1,846.33 


rately  The  D/LT  comes  bundled 
with  DOS  4.01,  Windows3.0, 

and  Microsoft  Works. 

You  might  think  that 

a  laptop  with  a  VGA 

- — —    port  makes  the  perfect 

go-between  for  home 

computing  and  comput- 
ing in  your  hotel  room,  but  think 
again.  Most  laptops  just  don't  of- 
fer the  expandability  that  full-size 
PCs  do,  and  even  the  larger-than- 
average  D/LT  won't  adequately 
serve  as  a  substitute.  With  a  2MB 
RAM  limit  and  no  card  slots,  the 
D/LT  won't  replace  your  versatile 
desktop  PC.  And  for  true  portabil- 
ity, you'll  want  to  try  the  Leading 
Edge  NB  300S  notebook  comput- 
er. The  standard  unit  packs  less 
RAM  and  hard  drive  space  than 
the  D/LT,  but  its  reduced  weight 
and  increased  operating  time  per 
battery  charge  probably  bring  it 
closer  to  your  idea  of  what  con- 
stitutes a  laptop  these  days.  At  on- 
ly about  $400  more  than  its  larg- 
er cousin,  the  notebook  warrants 
a  frequent  traveler's  attention. 

So,  who  needs  the  D/LT?  Well, 
for  shoppers  who  appreciate  a 
bargain,  the  D/LT  could  turn  out 
to  be  a  surprise  hit.  To  compete 
with  other  manufacturers  in  this 
market  of  increasingly  smaller 
and  lighter  portable  computers. 
Leading  Edge  lowered  the  sug- 
gested retail  price  of  the  D/LT  lap- 
top by  about  $1,000.  Any  further 
price  cuts  could  carve  out  quite 
a  niche  for  this  machine,  especial- 
ly with  computer  users  who  travel 
only  from  time  to  time  but  want  to 
make  sure  they  can  work  out  of 
town  if  they  need  to. 

DAVID  SEARS 


PANASONIC 
CF-270  BUSINESS 
PARTNER 

Can  a  seven-pound  notebook 
computer  measure  up  to  the 
needs  of  someone  accustomed 
to  using  a  well-equipped  desktop 
machine?  Panasonic's  CF-270 
Business  Partner  comes  mighty 
close  and  offers  many  of  the  im- 
portant features  that  we've  now 
come  to  expect  in  notebook  com- 
puters. 

At  a  mere  seven  pounds,  the 
CF-270  is  a  lightweight  whose  ap- 
proximate dimensions  are  12  inch- 
es by  10  inches  by  2  inches- 
small  enough  to  fit  into  most  at- 
tache cases.  The  CF-270  com- 
pares well  with  other  notebooks 
currently  available,  offering  a  16- 
MHz  80C286  CPU,  20MB  hard 
drive,  1.44MB  SVg-inch  floppy 
drive,  640  x  480  backlit  black- 
and-white  LCD  display  with  16- 
leve!  gray-scale  VGA,  and  1MB 
standard  memory  (expandable  to 
5MB), 

The  CF-270  comes  with  two 
3V2-inch  floppies,  which  include 
everything  you  would  expect,  in- 
cluding MS-DOS  4.01  and  GW- 
BASIC.  The  floppies  also  include 
some  programs  that  add  impor- 
tant features;  a  setup  program,  a 
power-management  program, 
FDISK  to  set  up  the  hard  drive, 
and  a  diagnostic  program  that 
tests  each  component  of  the  sys- 
tem. 

How  long  the  battery  holds  a 
charge  and  how  long  it  takes  to 
recharge  can  often  be  the  deter- 
mining factors  when  you're  decid- 
ing which  notebook  to  purchase. 
The  CF-270  comes  equipped 
with  a  quick-charge  battery  that 
will  fully  recharge  in  about  two 
hours  when  the  computer  is 
turned  off  and  in  four  hours  if  you 
use  the  computer  while  charging. 
The  battery  charge  lasts  about 
two  hours  but  will  vary  depending 
on  how  often  the  drives  are  ac- 
cessed and  which  power-conser- 
vation options  you've  selected. 


The  CF-270  software  (called 
Power  Management  Setup  Utility) 
allows  you  to  select  power-reduc- 
ing options  including  slowing  or 
shutting  off  tfie  CPU  when  the 
computer  is  not  busy,  turning  off 
the  hard  drive  motor  when  it's  not 
in  use,  placing  the  floppy  drive  on 
standby,  and  automatically  turn- 
ing off  the  screen  or  the  entire 
unit  if  there's  no  keyboard  input 
after  a  certain  time  interval.  Each 
of  the  power-saving  features  op- 
erates only  when  the  CF-270  is  run- 
ning on  battery  power. 

Using  the  Power  Management 
Setup  Utility  is  simple  enough. 
The  manual  briefly  explains  each 
of  the  options,  and  the  utility  in- 
cludes online  help  screens — a 
handy  convenience,  especially  if 
you  want  to  change  an  option  at 
31,000  feet  and  haven't  brought 
the  manual. 

I  set  the  system  to  maximum 
power  savings  and  found  that  the 
system  functioned  satisfactorily. 
The  only  time  I  could  detect  a  slow- 
down in  performance  was  when 
I  accessed  the  hard  drive  after 
the  motor  had  shut  off.  Usually 
the  delay  was  only  a  few  seconds 
while  the  drive  got  up  to  speed 
again,  a  small  price  to  pay  to  ex- 
tend the  life  of  a  battery  charge. 

I  especially  liked  the  keyboard 
and  its  layout;  a  touch  typist 
would  have  little  trouble  adjust- 
ing. If  you're  a  heavy  spread- 
sheet user,  you'll  enjoy  being 
able  to  convert  the  keyboard  to  a 
numeric  keypad.  Although  not  as 
convenient  as  a  separate  key- 
pad, this  compromise  proves 
quite  workable. 

The  CF-270  comes  with  sever- 
al external  ports  and  jacks.  With 
the  serial  and  parallel  ports,  you 
can  connect  to  your  favorite  print- 
er, external  modem,  or  serial 
mouse.  And  with  its  VGA  port  and 
keyboard  jack,  you  can  use  your 
CF-270  as  if  it  were  a  desktop  com- 
puter. 

The  CF-270  comes  with  sever- 
al manuals.  Less  than  100  pages 
long,  the  basic  User's  Guide  cov- 
ers all  the  basics  clearly  and 
concisely.  Also  included  are  a 


PANASONIC 
COMMUNICATIONS  & 
SYSTEMS 
otiice  Automation 

Group 
TWO  Panasonic  Way 
Secaucus,  NJ  07094 
(800)  742-8086 
List  Price:  $2,299.00 

(or  20MB, 

$2,799.00  (or 

60MB 
Street  Price: 

$1,995.33 


very  short  Getting  Started  Guide, 
a  User's  Reference  Guide,  an  MS- 
DOS  Shell  User's  Guide,  and  a 
Quick  Reference  Guide  to  MS- 
DOS  and  GW-BASIC.  Anyone 
with  any  experience  with  MS- 
DOS  computers  should  find  this 
documentation  satisfactory,  albe- 
it a  bit  skimpy.  If  you've  never  set 
up  a  new  system  before,  you 
might  find  the  process  a  bit  intim- 
idating, as  you  would  with  most 
computers.  And  if  you  have  lim- 
ited experience  with  DOS,  you'll 
not  learn  much  from  these 
guides. 

Panasonic  has  designed  a  re- 
spectable notebook  computer 
that  includes  most  of  the  features 
we've  come  to  expect.  If  you're  in 
the  market  for  a  small,  lightweight 


computer  that  will  fit  easily  into 
your  carry-on  luggage  and  on  an 
airplane's  table  tray,  you  would 
do  well  to  consider  the  Panason- 
ic CF-270  Business  Partner. 

STEPHEN  LEVY 

SHARP  PC-6220 

Sharp's  PC-6220  is  a  compact 
and,  on  the  whole,  well-designed 
computer  for  its  small  size  {11  x 
8x  1 .5  inches).  This  80C2e6  note- 
book computer  runs  at  12MHz 
and  comes  equipped  with  a  full 
megabyte  of  memory.  Its  durable 
exterior  and  light  weight  (4.4 
pounds  without  the  optional  flop- 
py drive)  should  make  this  ma- 
chine an  attractive  option  in  the 
world  of  portable  computing. 


THE  POWER-SAVING  SL  CHIP 


Intel  has  introduced  a  new  20- 
MHz  SL  chip,  exclusively  for  lap- 
tops, that's  supposed  to  add  sig- 
nificant power-saving  features. 
Zenith  claims  its  MastersPort 
386SL  (currently  the  only  laptop 
with  an  SL  chip)  will  preserve  an 
application  for  two  weeks  and 
then  resume  at  the  push  of  a  but- 
ton. 

Since  most  of  the  recent  lap- 
tops carry  the  SX  chip — and 
will  for  some  time  to  come — 
your  best  bet  for  extended  lap- 
top battery  use  is  to  buy  a  lap- 


top with  an  array  of  power-sav- 
ing features.  An  automatic 
screen  timeout  blanks  the 
screen  after  a  period  of  time 
passes  without  mouse  or  key- 
board input,  a  sleep  or  rest 
mode  will  actually  slow  down 
the  computer's  processing  time 
while  the  machine  is  still  running 
but  not  in  use,  and  standby 
mode  is  designed  to  conserve 
power  while  allowing  instant  ac- 
cess to  what  you  were  working 
on  with  the  press  of  a  key. 

— j;ll  champion 


45 


TEST  LAB 


Frequent  travelers  will  appre- 
ciate riot  having  to  carry  around 
any  more  pounds  than  neces- 
sary, Once  you've  loaded  your 
hard  drive  with  the  software  you 
use,  you  don't  really  need  to  lug 
the  optional  3'/2-inch  plug-in  flop- 
py drive.  If  you  don't  care  to  in- 
vest in  the  external  drive,  a  ROM 
version  of  Traveling  Software's 
LapLink  software  and  the  sup- 
plied cables  will  let  you  make 
transfers  between  this  notebook 
and  your  desktop  computer.  Lap- 
L/n/f  works  fine,  though,  and  in  no 
time  f  was  transferring  my  favor- 
ite word  processor,  graphics,  en- 
tertainment, and  other  software  to 
the  6220's  hard  drive. 

The  system's  port  covers  must 
be  detached  and  stand  a  good 
chance  of  getting  lost  (a  storage 
hatch  for  these  little  guys  would 
be  a  nice  feature).  And  the 
screen/cover  is  stiff  and  difficult 
to  place  at  just  the  right  angle,  It 
would've  helped  if  a  demonstra- 
tion program  or  at  least  some  mod- 
est utilities  had  been  included  ei- 
ther in  ROU  or  on  the  20MB  hard 
drive.  When  you  consider  the  pow- 
er that  has  been  packed  into 
such  a  small  package,  however, 
a  lot  can  be  forgiven. 

Though  the  6220  is  as  power- 
ful as  a  desktop  AT,  it  shares 
with  many  other  notebooks  the  lim- 
itations of  a  20MB  hard  drive. 
There  are  limitations  on  the  num- 
ber of  powerful  applications  you 
can  use.  For  instance,  Microsoft 
C6.0  with  all  the  associated  utili- 
ties takes  up  at  least  3MB  of  stor- 
age, as  does  GeoWorks  Ensem- 
ble, while  WordPerfect  5A  and 
Windows  3,0  take  at  least  6MB 
each. 

An  informal  test  of  processing 
speed,  using  a  few  of  my  own  cal- 
culation-intensive routines  and 
comparing  completion  time  with 
the  completion  time  on  other  AT- 
compatibles,  showed  that  the 
6220  compared  remarkably  well. 
If  you  add  a  coprocessor  in  the 
notebook's  80C287  socket,  you 
can  expect  even  better  perform- 
ance. You  have  the  option  of  in- 
creasing the  system  menriory, 

46        COMPUTE 


which  will  also  boost  perform- 
ance. Memory  can  be  increased 
to  two  or  three  megabytes 
through  the  purchase  of  optional 
1MB  RAM  cards. 

You  can  set  the  liquid  crystal 
display  for  CGA,  EGA,  and  MDA 
emulation,  as  well  as  the  default 
VGA.  And  a  Hercules  option  ex- 
ists for  an  external  monitor.  The 
6220  does  a  pretty  good  job  of  dis- 
playing graphic  images  in  16 
shades  of  gray.  1  tested  several 
compatible    images   with   the 


SHARP  ELECTROHICS 
Sharp  Plaza 

Mahwah,  NJ  07430-2135 
(800)  237-4277 
List  Price;  $3,199.00 
Street  Price:  $1,987.32 


same  resolution  and 
found  reasonable  faithful- 
ness. The  next  test  in- 
volved running  a  few 
graphic-intensive 
games.  Games,  as 
programmers 
and  game  play- 
ers were  early  ^^^ 
to  discover,  ^^r 
challenge  comput-  ''" 
er  abilities  like  no  oth- 
er software.  In  fact,  the 
games  I  tried  worked  surprising- 
ly well.  The  persistent  problem 
with  any  LCD  screen  continues  to 
be  the  slow  liquid  crystal  re- 
sponse times — if  the  image  on 
the  screen  is  changing  rapidly, 
there's  a  blurred,  shadowy  effect 
because  liquid  crystals,  rather 
than  being  strictly  on  or  off,  show 
an  obvious  range  of  activation. 
An  optional  adapter  for  CRT  out- 
put, to  either  a  multisync  or  VGA 
monitor,  makes  the  6220  more 
convenient  for  desktop  use.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  separately 
sold  numeric  keypad  and  expan- 
sion unit.  The  expansion  box  will 
provide  power  and  peripheral  con- 
nectivity while  furnishing  two  ex- 
pansion slots. 

The  nickel-cadmium  battery 


supplied  with  the  6220,  after  its 
initial  two-hour  charge  and  with  on- 
ly limited  hard  drive  access, 
goes  for  about  an  hour  and  a  half 
before  a  warning  beeper  informs 
you  that  there's  only  about  ten  min- 
utes of  power  remaining.  If  you 
don't  save  what  must  be  saved 
within  that  ten  minutes,  it  will  be 
lost.  The  AC  adapter,  included,  ei- 
ther doesn't  recharge  the  battery 
when  the  computer  is  being 
used  or  does  so  very  slowly  Ei- 
ther way,  if  you  need  to  get 
the  6220  back  on  the 


road 
again  soon 
you  must  switch  it  off  and  wait  for 
the  battery  to  recharge.  An  option- 
al battery  pack,  which  plugs  into 
the  back  of  the  unit,  is  available, 
and  according  to  the  manufactur- 
er, It  will  extend  battery-usage 
time  an  additional  three  hours. 

I  also  experienced  difficulty  in- 
stalling the  battery  pack,  a  prob- 
lem which  I  attribute  to  the  ma- 
chine's overall  compact  design — 
sometimes  a  little  extra  space  is 
welcome.  Because  the  battery 
slot  is  barely  larger  than  the  bat- 
tery, the  connector  wires  can  eas- 
ily get  in  the  way  during  battery 
insertion.  I  worked  and  worked  to 


get  the  battery  pack  neatly  seat- 
ed without  deforming  the  case  or 
mashing  the  wires;  every  possi- 
ble permutation  was  (gingerly) 
tried.  At  last  I  had  the  battery  and 
the  wires  in  place,  but  the  battery 
cover  remained  misshapen  on 
the  underside  of  the  unit  through- 
out the  review  process. 

Except  for  its  hefty  price  tag, 
I  would  not  hesitate  to  recom- 
mend Sharp's  PC-6220  note- 
book computer.  In  two  weeks  of 
heavy  use,  it  performed  flawless- 
ly. And  what  liberty  when  your 
AT  is  no  more  difficult  to  lug 
about  than  a  common  book! 

BRUCE  M,  BOWDEN 


VGA  COLOR  FOR  LAPTOPS 


What's  next  for  the  laptop  comput- 
er? Just  a  few  years  ago,  color  dis- 
plays for  portables  seemed  wish- 
ful thinking,  but  with  the  Sharp  Col- 
orstar,  wishes  can  come  true.  No 
washed-out  gray-scale  images 
here;  this  machine  delivers  a  stun- 
ning 256  vivid  VGA  colors,  cho- 
sen from  a  palette  of  262,144  pos- 
sible hues,  Combine  brilliant  col- 
or generation  with  the  inherent 
sharpness  that  comes  with  small- 
er screens,  and  you  have  a  re- 
markable picture,  whatever  you 
choose  to  display 

Using  Sharp's  innovative  thin- 
film  transistor  (TFT)  active-matrix 
LCD  (Liquid  Crystal  Display)  tech- 
nology, the  Colorstar  stands 
head  and  shoulders  above  the 
competition  in  terms  of  visual  im- 
pact. Each  pixel  has  its  own  sili- 
con thin-film  transistor  to  allov/  pre- 
cise color  control.  Not  surprising- 
ly, color  LCDs  aren't  easy  to  pro- 
duce; even  a  single  pixel  error 
stands  out,  so  production  stan- 
dards call  for  perfection,  not  ap- 
proxinaation.  In  part  because  of 
this  difficulty,  the  Colorstar  will  in- 
itially sell  for  $10,000  to  $15,000, 
but  you  can  expect  prices  to  fall 
as  burgeoning  consumer  de- 
mand for  color  LCD  microtel- 
e visions  encourages  the  improve- 


ment of  factory  methods. 

The  Colorstar  comes  with  a  20- 
iVlHz  386DX  processor,  2MB  RAM 
(expandable  to  10MB),  a  1.44MB 
floppy  drive,  and  a  100MB  hard 
drive.  Want  expandability?  The  Col- 
orstar has  a  half-size  expansion 
slot  (AT-bus,  for  networking, 
among  other  things),  the  standard 
parallel  port,  two  RS-232C  ports, 
a  keypad  port,  and  a  CRT  output. 
And  best  of  all,  the  Colorstar 


coutd  have  been  a  set  piece  for  an 
episode  of  "The  Jetsons."  Sleek, 
ergonomic,  and  the  very  picture  of 
high-tech,  the  Colorstar  should 
turn  heads  on  the  basis  of  its  style 
alone.  And  while  this  high-end  ma- 
chine may  not  wind  up  in  your 
stocking  this  Christmas,  move  it  up 
your  wish  list  anyway 

-^AVID  SEARS 


TANDY  2810  HD 

Versatile  and  packed  with  fea- 
tures, the  Tandy  2810  HD  laptop 
computer  offers  enough  features 
to  meet  most  of  your  computing 
needs,  even  if  you're  accus- 
tomed to  working  with  a  desktop. 
You  get  1MB  of  RAM  (expanda- 
ble to  5MB),  a  20MB  hard  drive, 
and  a  3y2-inch  1.44MB  floppy 
drive.  The  computer  operates  at 
16  MHz  and  has  a  socket  for  an 
optional  math  coprocessor, 

The  2810's  84-key  keyboard 
has  full  101 -key  emulation  and  al- 
lows for  some  customization.  If 
you  don't  like  where  the  Ctrl  and 
CapsLock  keys  are  located,  you 
have  the  option  of  physically  re- 
versing their  positions.  Smartly 
laid  out,  the  keys  have  a  good  sol- 
id feel  to  them. 

Other  keys  on  the  2810  initiate 
battery  power  conservation. 
These  place  the  computer  in 
standby  mode,  toggle  the  speed 
between  16  MHz  and  8  MHz,  dis- 
able the  speaker,  switch  from  the 
internal  screen  to  an  external  mon- 
itor, turn  off  the  serial  ports,  and 
more. 

In  most  working  environments, 
I  never  noticed  the  small  amount 
of  noise  generated  by  the  2810's 
disk  drive.  On  the  rare  occasions 
I  was  able  to  use  the  laptop  at 
home  in  my  library-quiet  den,  I 
found  the  noise  distracting.  No 

47 


TEST  LAB 


TANDY 

1800  One  Tanity  Center 
FL  Worth,  TX  76102 
(817)  390-3300 
List  Price:  $2,499 
Street  Price:  n/a 


problem;  press  a  key,  and  the 
drive  shuts  off  until  needed.  You 
can  also  configure  the  computer 
to  shut  off  the  drive  and/or  dis- 
play after  a  certain  period  of  in- 
activity. This  saves  battery  pow- 
er, too. 

The  2810  warns  you  when  the 
batteries  need  recharging,  giving 
you  ample  time  to  save  any  work 
in  progress.  If  they  should  fail 
while  you're  working,  however, 
the  Resume  feature  remembers 
what's  in  memory  when  the  ma- 


NORTON  INDEXES 

The  Norton  computing,  disk, 
and  overall  indexes  show  you 
how  well  a  computer  performs 
when  compared  to  a  4.77- 
MHz  XT  (the  original  IBM  PC). 
In  the  Norton  index,  such  an 
XT  has  a  value  of  1 .0.  If  a  com- 
puter is  twice  as  fast,  it  will 
have  a  value  of  2.0.  The  great- 
er the  index  value,  the  faster 
the  computer — and  the  faster 
your  applications  will  run. 

The  CPU  (Central  Process- 
ing Unit)  speed  test  rates  the 
computer's  microprocessor 
performance.  The  disk  index 
rates  the  performance  of  a  sys- 
tem's hard  drive.  The  overall 
performance  index  factors  in 
the  CPU  and  disk  indexes 
among  other  things. 

-RICHAflD  C.  LEINECKER 


48         COMPUTE 


chine  runs  out  of  power.  When 
you  turn  the  power  on  again,  the 
program  reappears,  and  you  con- 
tinue where  you  left  off. 

To  add  a  printer  and  a  mouse 
to  the  2810,  just  plug  the  appro- 
priate cables  into  the  computer's 
parallel  and  sehal  ports.  You  can 
just  as  easily  connect  a  VGA  mon- 
itor and  a  full-size  external  key- 
board via  the  built-in  monitor  and 
keyboard  ports.  This  makes  the 
2810  a  convenient  backup  for 
your  desktop  computer 

The  2810's  VGA  LCD  screen 
with  fluorescent  backlighting  has 
a  three-position  brightness 
switch  and  a  sliding  contrast  con- 
trol bar  allowing  for  readability  in 
a  wide  range  of  lighting  condi- 
tions. A  key  combination  lets  you 
further  vary  the  contrast  of  char- 
acters and  background;  you  can 
even  reverse  the  display  entirely. 


As  with  all  Tandy  computers, 
the  2810  comes  equipped  with 
the  DeskMate  graphics-oriented 
interface  and  application  soft- 
ware. These  applications  include 
a  word  processor,  drawing  pro- 
gram, spreadsheet,  calendar,  ad- 
dress book,  filer,  and  telecommu- 
nications program, 

Other  manuals  should  emulate 
Tandy's  User's  Guide.  Written  for 
the  2810.  it  isn't  meant  to  cover 
57  other  models  or  configura- 
tions. The  introduction  guides 
you  through  the  basics,  explains 
the  different  keys  and  setup  op- 
tions, and  explains  many  useful 
MS-DOS  commands.  A  separate 
manual  guides  you  through  Desk- 
Mate  and  its  applications. 

Setting  up  a  new  computer  is 
always  challenging,  but  Tandy's 
manual  removes  much  of  the  con- 
fusion that  comes  from  working 
with  a  new  system.  The  manual  ex- 
plains the  different  parameters 
and  what  they  do;  then  it  explains 
your  options.  For  example,  the 
time  and  date  functions  are  fairly 
simple  to  understand,  but  do  you 
know  if  you  want  to  enable  or  dis- 
able the  serial  ports,  FDC  Stand- 
by, Standby  Timeout,  or  VRAM 
Timeout?  After  a  quick  glance 
through  the  slim  but  thorough  man- 
ual, you'll  have  no  doubt  about 
what  these  functions  do  and  how 
you  want  them  configured. 

Adding  extra  memory  cards 
and  allocating  memory  are  also 


carefully  explained.  The  2810  has 
1MB  installed  with  640K  of  con- 
ventional  memory  and  384K  of  ex- 
tended or  shadow  RAM.  Availa- 
ble slots  leave  room  for  an  addi- 
tional 4MB  of  RAM.  Depending 
on  the  requirements  of  the  oper- 
ating system  and  the  software 
you  run,  you  can  configure  addi- 


2000  notebook  just  may  be  your 
ticket. 

It's  an  amazingly  small  286  note- 
book computer,  measuring  only 
11  inches  wide  x  8.5  inches 
deep  X  1.4  inches  thick  and 
weighing  in  at  a  meager  4.4 
pounds.  It  comes  standard  with 
1MB  of  RAM,  a  20MB  hard  disk. 


tional  memory  either  as  expand- 
ed or  extended.  Some  configura- 
tions require  minimum  allocations 
for  shadow  RAM  and  a  software 
driver  installed  in  a  CONFIG.SYS 
file.  Once  again,  you1l  find  this  in- 
formation clearly  spelled  out  in 
the  manual. 

A  solid  performer,  the  Tandy 
2810  HD  will  keep  pace  with  ad- 
vanced users  but,  thanks  to 
clear  documentation,  won't  over- 
whelm a  beginner.  With  1MB  of 
RAM,  a  high-density  disk  drive,  a 
20MB  hard  drive,  a  VGA  display, 
bundled  software,  and  solid  work- 
manship in  an  attractive  pack- 
age, this  laptop  is  ready  to  go  to 
work  for  you  in  a  big  way. 

TOM  NETSEL 

TEXAS  INSTRUMENTS 
TRAVELMATE  2000 

If  you're  ready  to  take  your  com- 
puting on  the  road,  then  the  Tex- 
as Instruments  (Tl)  TravelMate 

"Unadle  to  run  lest. 


and  a  backlit  LCD  VGA  display. 
The  TravelMate  has  an  attractive- 
ly Styled  case  and  a  comfortable, 
solid-feeling  keyboard, 

The  unit  I  reviewed  came  with 
the  optional  external  SVa-inch 
disk  drive  and  2400-baud  mo- 
dem/fax card.  All  of  the  optional 
accessories  can  be  quickly  in- 
stalled or  detached,  which 
means  you  don't  have  to  lug 


them  around  when  you  don't 
need  them.  The  drive  plugs  direct- 
ly into  an  expansion  port  located 
on  the  back  of  the  computer.  To 
install  it,  simply  pop  off  the  rear 
cover  and  plug  in  the  drive.  Two 
thumbscrews  hold  the  drive  in 
place,  so  you  don't  have  to  fuss 
with  cables.  It's  pretty  slick. 

The  modem/fax  card  plugs  in- 
to a  small  compartment  located 
just  above  the  keyboard.  The 
card  is  held  in  place  by  a  single 
screw  and  the  plug.  I  assumed 
that  this  screw  would  be  a  thumb- 
screw like  those  on  the  disk 
drive,  but  it's  not.  However,  if  you 
have  a  small  screwdriver,  you 
can  swap  cards  in  a  matter  of  min- 
utes. 

I  was  impressed  with  the  soft- 
ware that  came  with  the  system: 
BatteryPro  and  LapUnk,  a  file 
transfer  program  that  serves  as 
your  gateway  to  the  outside 
world  if  you  don't  purchase  the 
optional  3'/?-inch  disk  drive. 
Connected  by  the  LapUnk  ca- 
ble and  running  the  LapUnk  soft- 
ware, two  computers  have  com- 
plete access  to  each  other's 
disk  files.  BatteryPro  is  perhaps 
the  more  valuable  piece  of  soft- 
ware. It's  a  utility  package  that 
functions  as  a  power-conserva- 
tion system  for  the  computer. 
The  BatteryWatch  feature  of  the 
package  monitors  battery  con- 
sumption, and  BatteryPro  pro- 
vides only  the  power  necessary 


TEST  LAB 


to  do  your  work.  This  combina- 
tion saves  valuable  battery  pow- 
er that's  usually  wasted  by  other 
portables. 

The  battery  test  results  for  the 
TravelMate  were  acceptable. 
With  the  BalteryPro  utilities  in- 
stalled, it's  possible  to  get  about 
an  hour  and  a  half  of  use  from 
each  charge,  with  moderate  disk 
activity.  The  battery  pack  con- 


sists of  a  candy  bar-shaped  ni- 
cad  battery  that's  about  1 1 '/?.  inch- 
es long.  It  fits  into  a  very  tight  com- 
partment on  the  back  of  the  com- 
puter. The  process  of  removing 
and  replacing  this  piece  of  hard- 
ware is,  at  best,  difficult.  Howev- 
er, that's  an  extremely  small 
price  to  pay  when  you  consider 
the  small,  lightweight  design  of 
the  TravelMate. 

Included  with  the  modem  is  a 
well-rounded  set  of  communica- 
tions programs,  BitCom  and  Bit- 
Fax.  BitCom  is  a  full-featured  ter- 
minal program,  and  BitFax  takes 
advantage  of  the  card's  fax  ca- 

50        COMPUTE 


pabilities.  Both  are  extremely 
easy  to  use;  in  fact,  I  successful- 
ly used  both  without  reading  a  sin- 
gle page  from  the  manuals.  I'd 
never  sent  a  fax  before  doing 
this  review,  but  6/?Fax  walked  me 
right  through  the  whole  process 
of  sending  files  to  a  fax  machine 
here  in  the  office. 

I  thoroughly  enjoyed  using  the 
TravelMate  2000.  I  thought  the 
computer  was  well  designed  and 
attractive.  In  addition,  it 
seems  to  be  very  sturdy 

TEXAS  INSTRUMENTS 
Intormatlon  Technology 

Group 
P.O.  Box  202230 
Austin,  TX  78714-2230 
(800)  527-3500 
List  Price:  S2,309.00  for 

2(iMB;  $2,790.00 

lor  40NfB 
Street  Price:  $1,028.70 


and  solid,  which  is  a  big 
plus  in  a  portable  computer. 

The  only  thing  I  didn't  like 
about  the  computer  was  the 
small  plastic  covers  that  protect 
the  external  ports.  They  just 
didn't  want  to  stay  in  place  for 
me.  I  simply  removed  them  and 
placed  them  in  the  box  for  safe- 
keeping. {Most  partables  don't 
even  have  protective  covers,  so 
it's  not  really  a  problem.) 

Ifyou're  thinking  about  purchas- 
ing a  high-quality  notebook  com- 
puter, then  you  owe  it  to  your- 
self to  check  out  the  TravelMate 
2000.  It's  a  very  powerful  tool 
that  comes  with  good  software, 
has  room  for  expansion,  and  of- 
fers you  a  wide  range  of  op- 
tional equipment. 

TROY  TUCKER 


COPROCESSOR  SPEED 

COMPUTE'S  benchmark  statis- 
tics allow  you  to  compare  how 
our  Test  Lab  computers  han- 
dle COMPUTE'S  proprietary 
benchmark  tests.  But  there's 
another  kind  of  comparison 
you  should  consider — the 
speed  of  a  computer  with  a 
math  coprocessor  versus  the 
speed  of  a  computer  without 
one. 

When  one  of  our  review  com- 
puters arrived  at  the  lab  with 
a  coprocessor,  we  decided  to 
run  our  benchmarks  first  with 
the  coprocessor  and  then  with- 
out it.  The  differences  in  per- 
formance were  quite  dramatic 
in  some  tests. 

In  the  computer-aided  de- 
sign (CAD)  tests,  for  example, 
the  coprocessor  enabled  the 
computer  to  load  a  drawing  in 
just  under  14  seconds  rather 
than  the  minute  and  8  sec- 
onds the  computer  required 
without  the  coprocessor.  Re- 
scaling  a  drawing  required  a 
minute  and  12  seconds  with- 
out the  coprocessor,  16  sec- 
onds with  it.  In  the  floating 
point  math  calculation  compar- 
isons, the  differences  are  sim- 
ilarly dramatic.  With  the 
coprocessor,  floating-point  ad- 
dition required  35  microsec- 
onds, 306  microseconds  with- 
out it. 

However,  when  our  lab  ran 
speed  comparisons  in  applica- 
tions—including a  database 
sort,  a  database  reindex,  a 
text  search  and  replace,  and 
a  spreadsheet  recalculation — 
the  differences  were  decided- 
ly less  significant. 

Any  kind  of  application  that 
requires  the  plotting  of  curves 
or  other  geometric  shapes  or 
any  type  of  vector-based  graph- 
ic will  benefit  significantly  from 
a  math  coprocessor.  Anything, 
in  other  words,  that's  math  in- 
tensive will  benefit. 

—MIKE  HUDNALL 


TOSHIBA  T1000LE 

At  first  glance  you  might  pass 
over  this  laptop  for  other  more 
powerful  models.  But  that  could 
be  a  big  mistake.  I  ran  this  8086- 
based  machine  under  some  of 
the  most  demanding  conditions 
for  months,  and  it  performed  with 
flying  colors. 

Let's  start  with  the  important 
stuff.  It's  lightweight  and  rugged, 
and  it  has  a  good  battery  life.  You 
can't  love  one  of  these  babies  af- 
ter lugging  it  to  three  trade 
shows  in  two  weeks  unless  it's  re- 
ally light — and  this  one  is.  Using 
a  canvas  case  to  carry  it,  I  trav- 
ersed several  airports,  a  hotel  lob- 
by, and  several  sidewalks  without 
any  hint  of  soreness  in  my  tender 
shoulder.  On  our  semiofficial 
scale  here  at  COMPUTE,  it 
weighed  in  at  seven  pounds. 
With  the  carrying  case,  the  pow- 
er supply,  and  an  assortment  of 
backup  floppies,  the  total  is 
around  eight  pounds.  Not  bad, 
considering  everything  I  needed 
to  do  my  work  was  in  the  pack- 
age. 

And  none  of  that  banging 
around  broke  anything.  Sure,  I'm 
careful.  But  when  fighting  jet  lag, 
I,  like  most  other  people,  get  a  bit 
careless.  You  won't  find  any  flim- 
sy breakaway  doors  on  this  unit. 
Just  good,  honest,  substantial  cov- 
ers that  stand  up  to  almost  any- 
thing you  can  dish  out. 

If  you've  ever  flown  from  one 
side  of  the  continental  U.S.  to  the 
other,  you  know  it's  a  long  trip. 
Not  being  one  for  the  in-flight  mov- 
ie, I  counted  on  having  some- 
thing to  work  on  for  the  entire  SVa 
hours.  No,  I  didn't  get  that  far.  But 
I  did  work  for  almost  4  hours  with 
heavy  disk  access.  For  most  peo- 
ple that's  plenty 

What  about  performance?  As 
an  8086-based  machine,  it  was 
good,  though  not  as  fast  as  a  286 
or  a  386.  When  you're  on  the 
road,  though,  how  often  do  you 
reindex  your  database  files  or  re- 
calculate your  spreadsheet? 
Most  of  us  run  a  simple  database 
program,  contact  manager,  or 


TOSHIBA  AMERICA 
INFORMATIOM 
SYSTEMS 
9740  Ireine  Blvd. 
Irvine,  CA  9Z718 
(800)  334-3445 
List  Price:  $1,739.00 
Street  Price:  $1,530.98 


word  processor, 
and  for  those  ap- 
plications, my  Toshi- 
ba filled  the  bi 
When  I  did  compile  a 
program  with  my  Micro- 
soft C  compiler  and 
stepped  through  the  pro- 
gram with  the  Codeview  debug- 
ger, I  was  pleasantly  surprised  at 
how  well  it  performed,  Ttiese  two 
programs  separate  the  men  from 
the  boys  real  fast.  They  both 
squeeze  every  available  ounce  of 
performance  out  of  a  system. 
And  on  this  computer  the  perform- 
ance was  adequate. 

I'm  not  fond  of  laptop  key- 
boards, but  this  was  one  of  the 
best  I've  experienced.  Positive 
key  movement  with  definite  con- 
tact points  let  me  know  that  I  was 
working  on  something  solid. 
There  isn't  a  separate  numeric  key- 
pad, but  the  most  important  func- 
tions, such  as  PageUp  and 
PageDown,  have  their  own  sepa- 
rate keys. 

Reading  the  display  is  easy  if 
you've  adjusted  it  properly,  The 
controls  are  right  there  on  the 
side— no  fumbling  around  to  get 
the  right  setting.  In  a  wide  variety 
of  situations,  this  Toshiba's  dis- 
play was  crisp  and  clear.  One 
nice  addition  that  helps  adjust  for 
different  uses  is  the  ability  to 
change  system  fonts  with  a  hot 
key.  If  you're  having  trouble  read- 
ing what's  on  the  screen,  you  can 
toggle  between  the  fonts  and  de- 
cide which  is  best.  I  found  myself 
changing  fonts  several  times 
each  day  as  I  went  from  setting 
to  setting. 


I  had  an  internal  modem  that 
was  a  lifesaver  when  I  had  to 
send  files  to  the  office.  It's  one  con- 
venience I  wouldn't  want  to  be 
without.  With  the  phone  cord  that 
arrived  in  the  box,  I  was  able  to 
connect  in  all  of  my  hotel  rooms. 

There's  an  indispensable  fea- 
ture built  in  that's  as  close  as  a 
hot  key  away.  It's  a  pop-up  dis- 
play showing  you  how  much  pow- 
er is  left  in  your  batteries  and  let- 
ting you  set  various  switches  so 
that  the  computer  is  tuned  for  max- 
imum performance.  You  can  turn 
the  speaker  and  modem  on  or 
off,  set  the  display  to  reverse,  and 
toggle  the  auto  power  off  features 
of  the  hard  drive  and  display. 

A  single  internal  floppy  drive 
was  all  I  needed:  Once  all  of  my 
files  were  copied  to  the  20IV1B 
hard  drive,  I  rarely  needed  it. 
Disk  access  for  both  drives  was 
good — on  par  with  any  desktop 
model  with  an  8086  processor  run- 
ning at  9.5  MHz. 

If  you  have  to  be  the  first  on 
your  block  with  the  latest  comput- 
er technology  at  any  price,  you'll 
probably  look  elsev/here.  But  if 
you're  interested  in  a  great  value 
on  a  workhorse  unit,  this  laptop  is 
for  you.  It's  not  fancy  or  overwhelm- 
ingly fast,  but  dollar  for  dollar, 
you'll  get  your  money's  worth. 

RICHARD  C.  LEINECKER 

51 


SINCE  1979 


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COMPUTER  DIRECT,  INC. 

22292  N. Pepper  Road 
BarringlDn,  JL  60010 

'li'e  Love  Out  Customers' 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  114 


TEST  LAB 


FURTHER 
INFORMATION 


AST  PREMIUM  EXEC  386SX/20 

CPU:  80386SX,  CPU  Speed:  20 
MHz 

Conventional  Memory:  640K.  Ex- 
tended Memory:  1MB,  up  to 
8MB 

Ports:  serial,  parallel,  VGA,  6-pin 
PS/2-style  mini-DIN  (for 
mouse,  keypad,  or  keyboard) 

Drives:  3y2-incti  1.44MB  floppy, 
20MB,  40MB.  or  60MB  tiard 

Video  Modes:  VGA  paper  white 
with  32  shades  of  gray 

Screen  Type:  backlitCCFT  super- 
twist  film  LCD 

Standard  Accessories:  MS-DOS 
3.3,  LapLinkS,  serial  interface 
cable,  BatteryWatch,  tilt  stand/ 
battery  pack,  110/220-volt  au- 
tosensing  AC  adapter,  carry- 
ing case  with  handle,  AST  utili- 
ties, complete  documentation 

Optional  Accessories:  2400- 
baud  modem— $249,  9600- 
baud  fax/send— $349,  numer- 
ic keypad — $119,  leather  ac- 
cessory case — $299,  nylon  ac- 
cessory case — $1 29,  car  adapt- 
er/battery charger  with  built-in 
quick  charger— $129,  light- 
weight small  trickle  battery 
charger — $29,  secondary  bat- 
tery pack— $99,  4MB  memory 
expansion  (SIMMs)- $999,  ex- 
ternal charger  for  use  with  AG 
and  auto  adapters  to  charge 
secondary  battery  pack — 
$119 

Warranty:  one  year  (extended 
warranty  available) 

Sepu'ice  Plan:  through  dealer  or 
third-party  maintenance  com- 
pany 

circle  Reader  Service  Number  301 

DEU  320N 

CPU:  80386,  CPU  Speed:  20 
MHz 

Conventional  Memory:  640K,  Ex- 
tended Memory:  1MB,  expand- 
able to  5MB 

Ports:  serial,  parallel/external 
drive,  VGA,  keyboard/keypad, 
mouse 

54        COMPUTE 


Drives:  3y2-inch  1,44MB  floppy, 
40MB  or  60MB  hard 

Video  Modes:  VGA 

Screen  Type:  triple  supertwist 
LCD 

Standard  Accessories;  battery 
pack,  nylon  case,  AC  power 
adapter 

Optional  Accessories:  1MB  mem- 
ory—$149.00,  2MB  memory— 
$249.00,  4MB  memory— 
$498.00,  monochrome  VGA 
monitor— $149,00,  color  VGA 
monitor— $399.00,  SuperVGA 
color  monitor— $499,00,  2400- 
bps  data/fax  modem  (price 
unavailable),  extra  battery — 
$79.95,  DOS  3.3— $99.95, 
DOS  4.01  or  5.0— $119.00, 
pocket  network  adapter 
cards— $279.00-$659.00, 
9600-bps  fax— $399.00,  8387 
SX  coprocessor— $349.00,  ex- 
ternal S'A-inch  1.2MB  drive — 
$349.00,  40/120MB  external 
tape  backup  unit — $449.00,  nu- 
meric keypad — $149.00,  auto- 
mobile adapter— $129.00,  ad- 
ditional AC  adapter— $69.95, 
pseudoleather  case— $99.95, 
replacement  slip  case — $17.95 

Warranty:  one  year  parts  and  la- 
bor, 30-day  satisfaction  guar- 
antee 

Service  Plan:  automatic  one-year 
contract  with  next-day  on-site 
replacement,  can  be  extended 
for  additional  fee;  offered  by 
Dell,  performed  by  Xerox 

circle  Reader  Service  Number  302 

GRID  1720 

CPU:  80C286,  CPU  Speed:  16 
MHz 

Conventional  Memory:  640K,  Ex- 
tended Memory:  1MB.  up  to 
5MB 

Ports;  serial,  parallel.  VGA,  exter- 
nal PS/2-compatible  keyboard, 
modular  phone  jack 

Drives:  SVa-inch  1.44MB  floppy, 
20MB  or  60MB  hard 

Video  Modes:  CGA,  EGA,  VGA 

Screen  Type:  backlit  triple  twist 
LCD 

Standard  Accessories;  internal  re- 
chargeable/removable battery 
pack.  DOS  4.01 ,  AC  power  sup- 
ply, 2400-baud  modem,  real- 


time clock 

Optional  Accessories:  leather 
carrying  case,  corduroy  car- 
rying case,  enhanced  battery, 
Xircom  token  ring  adapter,  eth- 
ernet  adapters  (prices  unavail- 
able) 

Warranty;  one  year 

Service  Plan;  information  availa- 
ble by  calling  Grid 

circle  Reader  Service  Number  303 

HYUNDAI  SUPER-LT5 

CPU:  80386SX,  CPU  Speed:  8/ 
16  MHz  switchable 

Conventional  Memory:  640K,  Ex- 
tended Memory;  2MB,  expand- 
able to  6MB 

Ports:  serial,  parallel,  VGA,  exter- 
nal floppy  drive,  external  key- 
board 

Drives;  SYj-inch  1.44MB  floppy, 
40MB  hard 

Video  Modes:  VGA 

Screen  Type:  backlit  supertwist 
LCD 

Standard  Accessories:  AC  adapt- 
er, ni-cad  battery  MS-DOS 
4.01,  GW-BASIC 

Optional  Accessories:  2400-bps 
modem — $395,  soft  black  car- 
rying case  with  shoulder 
strap — $95,  extra  battery 
pack— $145 

Warranty:  18  months 

Service  Plan:  through  dealer 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  304 

LEADING  EDGE  D/IT386SX  PLUS 

CPU:  80386,  CPU  Speed:  16 
MHz 

Conventional  Memory:  640K,  Ex- 
tended Memory:  2MB 

Ports:  serial,  parallel,  VGA, 
mouse 

Drives:  3Va-inch  1 .44MB  floppy, 
40MB  or  100MB  hard 

Video  Modes:  VGA 

Screen  Type:  bacl<l!t  supertwist 
LCD 

Standard  Accessories:  battery 
MS-DOS,  GW-BASIC,  and  Win- 
dows 3.0 

Optional  Accessories:  modem — 
$199,  extra  battery  pack— $70, 
cigarette-lighter  adapter — $6, 
carrying  case — $70 

Warranty:  12  months  on  all 
equipment 


Service  Plan:  no  on-site  for  lap- 
tops; carry-in  to  dealers;  num- 
ber listed  above 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  305 

PANASONIC  CF-270 
BUSINESS  PARTNER 

CPU:  80C286,  CPU  Speed:  16 
MHz 

Conventional  Memory:  640K,  Ex- 
tended Memory:  1MB,  expand- 
able to  5MB 

Ports;  serial,  parallel,  VGA<  exter- 
nal keyboard 

Drives:  3 '/2-inch  1.44MB  floppy, 
20MB  hard 

Video  Modes;  VGA 

Screen  Type:  backlit  supertwist 
LCD 

Standard  Accessories:  MS-DOS, 
GW-BASIC,  diagnostic  utilities, 
AC  adapter 

Optional  Accessories:  1MB  RAM 
card — $369,  rechargeable 
ni-cad  battery — $99,  internal 
2400-baud  modem— $199 

Warranty:  one  year  parts  and 
labor 

Service  Plan:  through  Panasonic 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  306 


SHARP  PC-6220 

CPU;  80286,  CPU  Speed;  12 
MHz 

Conventional  Memory:  640K,  Ex- 
tended Memory:  1MB,  expand- 
able to  3MB 

Ports:  serial,  parallel,  numeric  key- 
pad, bus  for  expansion  unit 

Drives:  20MB  hard 

Video  Modes:  CGA,  EGA,  VGA, 
MDA 

Screen  Type:  backlit  triple 
supertwist  LCD 

Standard  Accessories:  AC  adapt- 
er, MS-DOS,  LapLink 

Optional  Accessories:  CRT 
cord— $149.  1MB  memory — 
$499,  add-on  battery— $249, 
S'/s-inch  1.44MB  floppy  drive— 
S299,  fax/modem— $499,  nu- 
meric keypad— $99,  expan- 
sion unit— S699 

Warranty:  one  year  for  service 
and  parts 

Service  Plan:  through  Sharp  Elec- 
tronics 

circle  Reader  Service  Number  307 


TANDY  2810  HD 

CPU:  80286,  CPU  Speed:  16 
MHz 

Conventional  Memory:  640K,  Ex- 
tended Memory:  384K,  expand- 
able to  5MB 

Ports:  serial,  parallel,  VGA,  exter- 
nal keyboard,  external  disk 
drive 

Drives:  SVs-inch  1 .44MB  floppy, 
20MB  hard 

Video  Modes:  VGA 

Screen  Type;  backlit  triple  super- 
twist LCD 

Standard  Accessories;  MS-DOS 
4.01,  battery,  DeskMate  3.  LIM 

4.0,  AC  adapter,  charger 
Optional  Accessories:  2400- 
baud  internal  modem — 
$199.95,  replacement  bat- 
tery—$99,95,  1MB  memory— 
$399.95,  carrying  cases — 
$39.95-$49.95 

Warranty:  one  year 

Service  Plan;  optional  extended 

plan  with  Radio  Shack 
Circle  Reader  Service  Number  308 

TEXAS  INSTRUMENTS 
TRAVELMATE  2000 

CPU:  80286.  CPU  Speed:  12 
MHz 

Conventional  Memory:  640K,  Ex- 
tended Memory;  1MB,  expand- 
able to  3MB 

Ports:  serial,  parallel,  numeric  key- 
pad, expansion  station 

Drives:  20MB  hard  (standard), 
40MB  hard  (optional) 

Video  Modes;  VGA 

Screen  Type:  sidelit  triple  super- 
twist LCD 

Standard  Accessories:  DOS 

4.01,  BatteryWatch,  Laptop 
and  File  Manager,  LapLink 

Optional  Accessories:  modem — 
S299,  extra  RAM  module— 
$399,  optional  floppy  drive — 
$219,  math  coprocessor — 
$589,  CRT  interface— $109,  ex- 
tra battery  pack— $89,  external 
battery  pack — $179,  numeric 
keypad— $69,  deluxe  carrying 
case— $69,  leather  portfolio— 
$49,  expansion  station— $799 

Warranty:  one  year 

Service  Plan;  optional,  varies  by 
location 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  309 


TOSHIBA  T1000LE 

CPU;  8086,  CPU  Speed:  9.54 
MHz 

Conventional  Memory;  640K,  Ex- 
tended Memory:  1MB,  expand- 
able to  9MB 

Ports:  serial,  parallel 

Drives:  aVj-inch  1.44MB  floppy, 
20MB  hard 

Video  Modes:  CGA 

Screen  Type:  sidelit  supertwist 
LCD 

Standard  Accessories:  DOS  3.3, 
Reference  Guide,  Portable 
Companion,  MS-DOS  Manual, 
FirstTime  Guide 

Optional  Accessories:  1MB  mem- 
ory—$269,  2MB  memory— 
$479,  4MB  memory— $889, 
8MB  memory — $1,779,  univer- 
sal AC  adapter— $75,  battery 
pack  recharger — $279,  battery 
pack  2200  milliamps— $105, 
battery  pack  1700  milliamps — 
$65,  modem-slot  battery 
pack — $65,  fabric  carrying 
case — $79,  leather  carrying 
case — $105,  automobile  adapt- 
er— $59,  2400-bps  Hayes-com- 
patible modem  for  dedicated 
slot— $279,  2400-bps  Hayes- 
compatible  modem  (cellular 
modem) — $359,  external  5Vi- 
inch  360K  floppy— $399,  Toshi- 
ba BASIC  3.0— $99,  MS-DOS 
4.01— $99,  Desk  Station  II— 
$1,199 

Warranty;  one  year  parts  and  la- 
bor 

Service  Plan;  Exceptional  Care 
(Toshiba),  first  year  free 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  310 


All  Benchmark/Performance 
Testing  is  conducted  bu  Com- 
puter Product  Testing  Serv- 
ices, Inc.  (CRTS),  an  inde- 
pendent testing  and  evalua- 
tion laboratory  based  in 
Manasquan,  New  Jersey. 
Every  effort  has  been  made 
to  ensure  the  accuracy  and 
completeness  of  this  data  as 
of  the  date  of  testing.  Per- 
formance may  vary  among 
samples. 


55 


DOS  5.0 
A  PERFECT  10 


THE 

SOFTWARE  BARGAIN 

OF 

THE  YEAR 

BY  MARK  MINASI 


Since  its  introduction  ten  years  ago, 
DOS  has  seen  a  lot  of  clianges, 
not  all  for  the  better.  People  with 
long  PC  experience  and  good  mem- 
ories know  that  new  versions  of  DOS 
are  often  mixed  blessings,  so  the 
news  that  there's  a  new  version  may 
not  bring  a  smile  to  everyone's  face. 

But  this  version  is  different,  and  it 
ought  [0  make  you  smile.  With  version 
5.0,  DOS  has  emerged  from  its  stormy 
adolescence  and  developed  into  a  ma- 
ture, well-rounded  operating  system. 

What's  so  special  about  this  DOS? 
Well,  it  uses  less  memory  than  previ- 
ous versions  and  includes  commands 
that  allow  you  to  unerase  files  and, 
more  amazing,  unformat  disks. 

It  comes  with  a  shell  that  lets  you 
run  multiple  programs  at  the  same 
time,  and  it  remembers  your  last  20^  or 
so  commands,  allowing  you  to  recall, 
edit,  and  reissue  them,  saving  count- 
less keystrokes. 

With  the  new  DIR  command,  you 
can  sort  files  by  name,  size,  date,  or  ex- 
tension; show  hidden  files;  only  show 
hidden  files  or  files  that  haven't  been 
backed  up;  and  a  multitude  of  other 
possibilities. 

If  I  sound  breathless,  1  am.  I've 
worked  with  enough  so-called  new-and- 
improved  software  products  to  know 
what  to  expect  of  a  new  operating  sys- 
tem. I  figured  that  5.0  either  wouldn't 
work  with  my  Novell  network,  would 
clash  with  my  OnTrack  Disk  Manager, 
or  wouldn't  run  with  Windows,  and  on 
and  on. 

imagine  my  surprise  when  I  saw 
that  5.0  ships  with  a  Novell  driver,  a  5.0- 
compatible  version  of  the  OnTrack  soft- 
ware, and  new  and  cleaner  versions  of 
EMM386.EXE  and  HIMEM.SYS,  the  crit- 
ical memory-organizing  device  drivers 
used  by  Windows  3.0! 

Microsoft  has  really  put  some 
thought  into  this  system,  and  I'm  sure 
it's  going  to  pay  off.  I  wouldn't  be  sur- 
prised if  virtually  everyone  in  the  PC 
world  hasn't  switched  to  DOS  5.0  with- 
in a  year. 

More  Memory 

At  a  recent  press  conference,  a  Micro- 
soft PR  person  asked,  "What  is  Micro- 
soft best  known  for?"  A  member  of  the 
audience  shouted,  "The  640K  limita- 
tion!" 

That  wasn't  the  answer  the  flack  was 
looking  for,  but  it  addressed  perhaps 
the  best-known  and  most  annoying  lim- 
itation of  MS-DOS.  The  operating  sys- 
tem is  restricted  to  using  the  lowest 
part  of  your  computer's  memory  poten- 
tial, called  conventional  memory. 

Some  vendors  have  responded  to 
this  problem  with  clever  programs 
called  memory  managers.  The  best- 

58        COMPUTE 


selling  of  these  are  OEMM,  from  Quar- 
terdeck Systems,  and  386MAX,  from 
Qualitas.  These  programs  allow  you  to 
make  some  use  of  the  extended  mem- 
ory that  often  goes  unused  on  a  386, 
386SX,  or  486  system.  These  386- 
type  systems  can  theoretically  have 
more  than  4000  megabytes  of  extend- 
ed memory,  so  any  program  that  lets 
you  use  some  extended  memory  is  ob- 
viously valuable. 

These  memory  managers  perform 
two  main  functions.  First,  they  allow 
you  to  load  device  drivers  and  memory- 


You'll  need  to  focus  on  the 
HIMEM.SYS  and  EMM386,EXE  device 
drivers,  the  new  DOS=HIGH,UMB  com- 
mand, the  DEVICEHIGH  CONFIG.SYS 
command,  and  the  LOADHIGH  AU- 
TOEXEC.BAT command. 

You'll  have  to  noodle  around  with 
these  a  bit  to  make  them  work  well,  but 
it's  worth  the  time.  One  final  caution:  In 
order  to  load  DOS  above  the  640K  ad- 
dresses, you  need  an  80286  or  better 
computer;  to  load  device  drivers  and 
TSRs  above  640K,  you  need  an  80386 
or  better. 


DOS  5.0'S  TOP  1  hN  FEATURES 

•  New  memory  manager  that  loads 

•  New  QuickBASIC  interpreter  (QBASIC) 

DOS,  device  drivers,  and  TSRs  into 

•  New  command-history  retriever  (DOS- 

high  memory  {DOS,  HIMEM.SYS,  and 

KEY) 

EMM386.EXE) 

•  Improved  SYS  command  (SYS) 

•  New  unerase,  untormal,  and  file-sys- 

• Improved  shell  with  built-in  task  switch- 

tem tracking  commands  (LINERASE, 

er  (DOSSHELL) 

UNFORMAT  and  MIRROR) 

•  Improved  directory  command  (DIR) 

•  New  text  editor  with  full  mouse  support 

•  Improved  disk  checking  (CHKDSK) 

and  pull-down  menus  (EDIT) 

•  Improved  memory  viewing  (MEM) 

resident  TSR  programs  above  the 
640K  of  conventional  memory,  freeing 
up  conventional  memory  that  was 
once  used  by  these  helpers. 

Second,  they  temporarily  translate 
some  of  that  otherwise-unused  extend- 
ed memory  into  a  third  kind  of  memory 
called  expanded  memory,  memory 
used  by  programs  like  1-2-3  version  2 
or  l/VordPerfecf  version  5.1. 

Both  of  these  functions  are  valuable, 
and  that's  why  both  Qualitas  and  Quar- 
terdeck sales  are  doing  well  at  the  mo- 
ment. 

But  now,  they  have  competition 
from  DOS  itself.  The  new  HIMEM.SYS 
included  with  5.0  does  more  than  sim- 
ply serve  Windows;  it  provides  the  real 
magic  behind  one  of  5.0's  most  eye- 
catching features. 

Is  There  Really  61 4K  Free? 

1  just  ran  CHKDSK,  and  it  told  me  that, 
despite  having  loaded  a  pile  of  memo- 
ry-hungry device  drivers  and  TSRs,  I 
have  614K  of  my  640K  free.  Under 
DOS  3.3,  that  number  would've  been 
somewhere  around  520K;  under  4.01, 
it  would  be  about  508K. 

HIMEM,  in  concert  with  a  new  CON- 
FIG.SYS command  DOS=HIGH,  actual- 
ly loads  as  much  as  64K  of  DOS  into 
your  computer's  extended  memory!  An- 
other 5.0  program,  EMM386.EXE,  al- 
lows you  to  load  device  drivers  and 
TSRs  above  640K,  just  like  OEMM  and 
386MAX,  and  again,  it  works  without  a 
hitch  with  Windows. 

Once  you  get  a  copy  of  5.0,  don't 
miss  out  on  these  memory  benefits. 


A  Kinder,  Gentler  File  System 

You've  done  it.  I've  done  it. 
Everyone's  done  it  at  some  point  or  an- 
other: accidentally  erased  a  file.  If 
you're  like  millions  of  PC  users,  you've 
gone  out  and  purchased  The  Norton 
Utilities.  PC  Tools,  or  Ttie  Mace  Utili- 
ties. But  5.0  now  includes  the  utilities 
UNDELETE,  UNFORMAT,  and  MIR- 
ROR from  Central  Point  Software's  PC 
Tools  Deluxe.  UNDELETE  reverses  a 
file  erasure — within  limits.  If  you  wait 
too  long  between  when  you've  erased 
the  file  and  when  you  try  to  undelete  it, 
it  may  no  longer  be  recoverable. 

How  does  UNDELETE  work  this  mi- 
nor miracle?  Simple.  When  DOS  eras- 
es a  file,  it  doesn't  go  to  the  actual 
trouble  of  overwriting  the  area  on  disk 
where  the  file  resides.  Instead,  it  just 
marks  that  area  as  usable  for  creating 
new  files. 

As  long  as  you  don't  create  any  new 
flies,  there's  no  demand  to  actually  util- 
ize this  available  area.  Create  a  new 
file,  however,  and  there's  the  chance 
that  your  "erased"  file  will  actually  be  ir- 
revocably overwritten.  UNDELETE 
sniffs  out  the  waiting-to-be-overwritten 
file  and  reconstructs  its  old  directory  en- 
try. 

You  can  make  life  easier  for  UN- 
DELETTE,  however,  with  another  of  the 
Central  Point  tools  now  in  5.0:  MIR- 
ROR. MIRROR  makes  a  copy  of  your 
system's  table  of  contents— two  areas 
you  may  have  heard  of,  called  the  Pile 
Allocation  Table  (EAT)  and  the  root  di- 
rectory. 

Both  UNDELETE  and  UNFORMAT 


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Available  for  Apple,  Mac,  IBM  PC/PS2 
and  compatible  computers. 


USING  DOS  5.0'S  MEMORY  MANAGER 


To  get  the  most  from  5.0's  new  memory 
management  skills,  you  need  to  follow  a 
few  simple  rules. 

The  first  two  lines  in  your  CONFIG.SYS 
file  should  install  HIMEM.SYS  and 
EMM386.EXE  in  that  order,  if  you're  run- 
ning EtvlM386  just  to  load  device  drivers 
and  TSRs  high  and  aren't  using  its  abili- 
ty to  emulate  expanded  memory,  you'll 
need  to  add  the  parameter  NOEMS.  Al- 
so, if  your  system  includes  hardware 
that  uses  addresses  between  640K  and 
1024K,  you'll  need  to  add  the  exclude 
switch  (X)  to  tell  EMM386  not  to  use 
those  addresses.  Here's  an  example  of 
those  first  two  lines: 

DEVICEsC:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS 
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE  NOEMS 
X=CCOO-DOOO 

Make  sure  you  use  DOS  5.0's  HIMEM 
and  EMM386  commands.  You  may 
have  several  copies  of  these  on  your 
hard  disk.  Find  the  old  ones  and  delete 
them. 

Now  you're  ready  to  load  device  driv- 
ers and  TSRs  high- 

To  load  a  device  driver  high,  instead 
of  using  DEVICE=,  you  use  DE- 
VICEHIGH=.  For  example,  to  load  AN- 
SI.SYS  high,  you'd  use  the  command  DE- 
VICEHIGH=ANSI.SYS.  It's  important  to 
note  that  you  can't  use  DEVICEHIGH 
with  HIMEM.SYS  and  EMM386.EXE. 

As  a  rule,  it's  best  to  load  programs  in 
order  by  size,  starting  with  larger  pro- 
grams. 

To  load  DOS  itself  high,  you'll  want  to 
add  ttie  command  DOS=HIGH,UMB. 

Here's  a  sample  CONFIG.SYS  for 
DOS  5.0: 

DEVICE=C:\00S\HIIVIE!V1.SYS 
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EIVIIVI38B.EXE  NOEIVIS 
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.SYS 

2048  1024 
DEUICEHIGH=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE 


DEVICEHIGH=C:\D0S\ANS1.SYS 
DEVICEHIGH=C:\iViOUSE.SYS  /S50 
SHELL=C:\D0S\C0IV!1V!AND.C0IVI  C:\ 

D0S\/E:512  /P 
BUFFERS=ia 
FILES=40 
STACKS=0,0 
DOS=KIGH,UIVIB 

To  load  TSRs  high,  yot;  simply  pre- 
cede the  command  in  your  AUTOEX- 
EC.BAT  with  LOADHIGH.  For  example, 
to  load  DOS's  new  DOSKEY  command- 
history  retriever  into  conventional  mem- 
ory, you'd  put  the  command  DOSKEY  in 
your  AUTOEXEC.BAT  file.  To  load  this 
program  into  high  memory,  you  use  the 
line  LOADHIGH  DOSKEY. 

Here's  a  sample  AUTOEXEC.BAT: 

©ECHO  OFF 
VERIFY  OFF 
PATHC:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\ 

UT;C:\BA;C:\UT;C:\UT\NU;C:\UT\XY 
C:\DOSMVIIRROR  C:  /I 
SET  DIRCMD=/W/P/ON 
PROMPT  SDSJP$G 
LOADHIGH  C:\DOS\DOSKEY  /INSERT 
CD  \WINDOWS 
WIN 

There's  one  more  command  that's  essen- 
tial for  memory  management — MEM. 
MEM's  been  around  since  DOS  4.0,  but 
it  has  a  new  feature  that  displays  how 
much  memory  your  device  drivers  and 
TSRs  are  using  and  where  in  convention- 
al or  upper  memory  they're  loading. 

To  get  the  big  picture,  type  MEM/C 
IMORE  at  the  DOS  prompt.  If  some  of 
the  programs  you  tried  to  load  into  high 
memory  actually  loaded  into  convention- 
al memory,  change  the  order  in  which 
they  load.  You'll  probably  need  to  experi- 
ment a  little  to  get  the  most  from  5.0's  ex- 
cellent new  memory  management  fea- 
tures. 

— CLIFTON  KARNES 


use  this  copy  as  a  starting  point  when 
reconstructing  files  after  damage  or  era- 
sure. The  MIRROR  backup  isn't  essen- 
tial, but  it  greatly  increases  your  chanc- 
es of  data  recovery.  And  running  it  reg- 
ularly is  painless — just  include  it  in 
yourAUTOEXEC.BAT 

The  third  command  of  this  group  is 
the  nnost  annazing:  UNFORMAT  Acci- 
dentally format  a  floppy  disk  or  a  liard 
disk,  and  in  a  twinkling  you  can  undo 
the  damage.  This  seems  to  violate  the 
laws  of  physics,  but  again,  there's  no 
real  magic  involved.  It's  already  been 
said  that  erasure  operations  don't  ac- 
tually overwrite  files.  Instead  they  tell 
DOS  to  forget  that  the  files  exist  and 
treat  the  areas  in  which  they  reside  as 
available.  As  it  turns  out,  the  FORMAT 
command  just  does  the  same  thing  on 
a  grand  scale. 

60        COMPUTE 


UNFORMAT  reconstructs  the  FAT 
and  root  directory,  effectively  nullifying 
the  accidental  FORMAT  operation — 
again,  this  only  works  if  you  run  UNFOR- 
MAT before  you  create  any  new  files. 

Along  the  lines  of  data  recovery, 
there  are  two  minor  revisions  of  old 
DOS  programs  that  are  worth  mention- 
ing. FORMAT  itself  is  smarter  and  can 
now  format  a  disk  in  just  16  seconds, 
provided  that  the  disk  has  already 
been  formatted  at  some  time  in  the 
past. 

And  SYS,  the  DOS  utility  that  makes 
disks  or  hard  drives  bootable,  used  to 
be  very  picky  about  which  disks  it 
would  work  with.  Its  criteria  for  boota- 
bility  were  so  stringent  that  it  was  near- 
ly useless. 

SYS's  limitations  really  showed 
when  trying  to  upgrade  the  DOS  on 


your  hard  disk.  More  than  once,  I 
gave  up  trying  to  get  SYS  to  play  ball 
and  just  reformatted  the  disk  to  get  the 
new  DOS  on  the  hard  disk. 

SYS  is  now  much  more  accommodat- 
ing. So  much  so,  in  fact,  that  it  seems 
amenable  to  making  any  disk  boota- 
ble, so  long  as  there's  about  85K  of 
free  space  on  the  disk  for  the  system 
files. 

The  UNDELETE  and  UNFORMAT  pro- 
grams, and  others  like  them,  have  cer- 
tainly been  available  through  third  par- 
ties for  years.  But  it's  nice  to  finally  see 
them  included  with  DOS.  These  tools 
are  too  good  for  just  power  users  to 
know  about.  And  the  fact  that  SYS  is  fi- 
nafly  useful  (after  a  mere  ten  years)  is 
quite  welcome. 

The  Old  Shell  Gome 

More  and  more  PC  users  prefer  a  pro- 
gram-launching, file-managing  shell  pro- 
gram to  the  arid  charms  of  the  C 
prompt,  so  word  of  DOS  4.01  's  shell  pro- 
gram was  greeted  enthusiastically  in 
the  user  community — at  least  until  the 
community  actually  saw  the  shell. 

You  could  say  that  the  DOS  4.01 
shell  was  to  shells  what  EDLIN  is  to  ed- 
itors. DOS  S.O's  DOSSHELL  improves 
on  the  previous  shell  to  a  point  where 
it's  actually  not  bad.  as  shells  go.  Even 
veteran  command  line  jocks  may  find 
a  use  for  the  shell's  newest  feature — 
task  switching. 

With  task  switching,  any  computer, 
even  an  XT,  can  load  multiple  pro- 
grams and  switch  among  them.  Now, 
be  sure  to  read  that  correctly  This  isn't 
full-fledged  multitasking.  Load  1-2-3 
and  WordPerfect,  and  only  one  of 
them  is  actually  running  at  any  time — 
the  program  that  you're  working  with. 

But  when  you  want  to  switch  from  1- 
2-3  to  l/l/orcfPerfecf,  you  don't  need  to 
exit  1-2-3  and  start  WordPerfect.  Rath- 
er, you  just  type  Alt-Esc,  a  key  combi- 
nation familiar  to  Windows  users. 

The  main  benefit  is  quick  switches 
from  one  program  to  another,  which 
could  be  quite  a  welcome  benefit  for  a 
user  with  an  older  8088-based  system 
or  someone  who  doesn't  want  to  have 
to  fool  with  Windows  just  to  load  multi- 
ple programs. 

Each  DOS  session,  by  the  way, 
gets  582K  of  RAM  {on  my  system,  at 
least) — not  bad  for  a  task  switcher 
that  comes  free  with  the  operating  sys- 
tem, 

Other  than  task  switching,  the  shell 
has  the  usual  shell  features — mouse 
support  for  selecting  files  for  copying 
and  deleting,  a  visual  representation  of 
your  disk's  tree  structure,  and  point- 
and-click  program  launching. 

There  are  a  couple  of  little  extras, 
too:  a  50-line  screen  mode  and  the  an- 


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BUSINESS 


J  FormGen  (1630)  Design  and  print 
any  business/office  form  easily. 

-i  FormGen  Fil!  (1631)   FiH  out 

FormGen-created  forms  more  quickly 
and  accurately,  i'equires  FormGoni 
J  FormGen  Business  Forms  (1632) 
An  excellent  collection  of  pre-designed 
business  forms,  iieq,  FormGon)  HD 
J  Doctor  Data  Label  (1717)  A  profes- 
sional matHist  manager.  HD,  .512K 
J  Checkmate  Plus  (1109,  1110)  A 
complete  cfiecktHxik  manager.  Handles 
unlimited  accounts  and  does  reconcili- 
ation, i?- disks)  512K.  HD 
J  Business  Kit  (16S6)  Two  programs 
(or  small  businesses:  Simple  Book- 
keeper and  Billing  Statement. 
LI  Solvelt!  (1 624,1 625)  Excel  lent  finan- 
cial calculations  package.  (2  disks)  HD 
U  Invoice-It  (1664)  Keep  track  of  in- 
voices, merchandise,  vendors  and 
customers  at  ttie  point  of  sale.  HD 
:J  Names  and  Dates  (1619.1620)  An 
address  book,  calendar  system,  and 
mailing  list  combination.  (2diaks)512K 
U  ZPAY  3  (161 0, 1 61 1 )  A  full-featured 
payroll  package.  (2  disks)  HD 
U  PC-Areacode(1655)  Helps  you  find 
the  areacode  for  any  city  in  the  U.S.  or 
Canada  quickly  and  easily. 


EDUCATION 


J  Computer  Tutor  (123S)  Become  a 
more  effective  computer  user, 
a  School  Mom  (1 251 )  Teaches  kids  2- 
14  the  basics  of  art,  music,  spelling, 
English  and  math.  FANTASTIC^!  C6A 
U  World  (1221)  A  computer  encyclo- 
pedia of  global  information.  CGA 

□  Total  Recall  (1245)  This  program 
helps  you  quickly  memorize  words  and 
information  on  any  subject. 

U  Algehrax  (1233)  A  great  program 
that  teaches  algebra.  CGA,  DOS  3.0 

J  Pre-Caiculus  (1218)  Excellem  pre- 
calc  tutor.  Reviews  algebra  and  trig. 
'J  Play  n'  Learn  (1236)  A  collection  of 
learning  games  for  cliildren.  CGA 

□  Kl  nder Math  (1 262)  An  excellent  math 
tutor  for  children-  Three  levels  of  diffi- 
culty. Very  entertaining,  CGA 

"JWordWhte(1252)Achallengingwofd 
game  that  tests  your  vocabulary. 

J  Word  Gallery  (1256)  Teaches  kids 
to  link  v^fiften  words  with  objects.  CGA 
J  Wunder  Book  (1 269)  A  collection  of 
5  colorful  and  fun  games  in  Englisti, 
Spanish,  French,  and  German  for  chil- 
dren 3  to  10  years  old.  EGA  or  VGA 
J  Animated  Shapes  (1264)  Teaches 
shapes  and  colors  lo  pre-schoolers 
using  animated  graphics.  640K.  EGA 


SPREADSHEET 


lJ  On  Side  (1506)  Prints  your  spread- 
sheets (or  any  file)  sideways. 
U  As-Easy-As  (1805)  A  fantastic  Lo- 
tus 1-2-3  compatible  spreadsheet. 
J  Lotus  Learning  Sys.(1810,t811)A 
complete  package  that  makes  it  easy 
to  learn  Lotus  1-2-3.  (2  disks)  HD 
U  InstaCalc  (161)  A  very  high-power, 
stand-alone  spreadsheet  which  may 
also  be  run  as  a  TSR  (pop-up)  spread- 
sheet. (2  disks) 


MS  WINDOWS  3.0 


These  programs  require  Windows  3,0. 
J  Almanac  (1470)  An  excellent  calen- 
dar/information utility. 
^  Icon  Library  (1 481 )  Customize  your 
Windows  operating  environment  with 
this  collection  of  over  300  icons. 
_1  Paint  Shop  (1488)  An  excellent 
graphics  tool  for  desktop  publishing. 
Supports  BWIP,  GIF,  IMG,  MAC,  PCX, 
and  RLE  fonmats. 

_l  Active  Life  (1 472)  A  poweriui  sys- 
tem for  managing  your  active  business 
and  personal  life. 

J  Icondraw  (1478)  Create  your  own 
icons  to  use  with  Windows 
LJ  XVTDraw  (1489)  A  great  drawing 
program  that  is  in  many  ways  better 
than  the  Wi  ndows  Paintbrush  program. 
J  Screen  Peace  (1486)  A  FANTAS- 
TIC screen  saver  with  many  beautiful 
and  interesting  variations. 
Zi  Change  Cursor  Utility  (1487)  Al- 
lows you  to  design  you  r  own  arrow  and 
hourglass  cursors  to  use  with  Windows. 


WORD 
PROCESSING 


a  WP  5.0/5.1  Clip  Art  (1875,1876)  A 

large  collection  of  c  lip  art  to  add  spice  to 
your  WP  documents.  (2  '.fisksl 

J  PC  Write  3.03  (1851-1853)  A  very 
popular  fuH-featured  word  processor. 
(3disks)HD,  512K 

J  WP  5-1  Learning  System  (1865- 

1 867)  Be  a  more  prof  icient  WP  user.  (3 
disks)  HD.  51 2K 

J  Readability  Plus  (1340)  A  comput- 
erized writing  style  analyzer. 
JGrabPlus/LaserLabel(ie83,1884) 

Takes  addresses  from  a  word  proces- 
sor and  sends  them  lo  the  printer,  HD 


APPLICATIONS 


J  Trip  Planner  (1 33 1 )  A  computerized 
road  map.  Computes  best  route.  Very 
popular! 

_l  Melody  Maker  (1918)  A  fun  and 

easy-to-use  program  for  new  or  expe- 
fienced  music  students.  Comes  with 
several  songs. 

J  Calendar  fVfate  (1344)  A  full-fea- 
tured program  designed  to  create  per- 
sonalized calendars. 
□  Lotto!  (1 31 3)  Win  Ihe  lottery  with  the 
help  of  your  computer! 
JBowl  101  (1346)  Auser-friendly  bowl- 
ing  league  management  program. 
J  The  Electric  Almanac  (1341)  A 
source  for  lots  of  useful  information. 


GRAPHICS 


J  Picture  Label  (1501)  An  excellent 
label  printing  program  that  uses 
PrintMaster  or  PrintShop  graphics. 
-I  Banner  Maker  (1502)  Prints  ban- 
ners in  various  sizes,  styles,  and  fonts. 
J  Dazzle  (1530)  An  amazing  random- 
ized color  pattern  generator.  Perfor- 
mance art  for  the  eyes!  i;GA  or  VGA 
J  Cooper  PM  Graphics  (1516,1517) 
Approx,  800  clip-art  images  to  be  used 
with  PrintMaster.  (2  disksl 
D  Cooper  PS  Graphics  (1518,1519) 
Approx.  800  ciip-art  images  to  be  useci 
with  PrintShop.  (2  disks) 


HOME  &  FAMILY 


J  Family  Tree  Journal  (1122,  1123) 

Presents  your  genealogical  information 
in  book  form.  (2  disks)  HD 
J  l-fome  Inventory  (1 1 05)  Keeps  track 
of  all  your  personal  property. 
3  Personal  Budget  Tools  (1 1 08)  Pro- 
vides a  simple  way  to  plan  for  annual, 
semi-annual,  and  quarterly  expenses. 
J  Win  Kit  (1343)  Create  your  own  will 
valid  in  all  50  states. 
Zl  Cash  Control  (1127)  Manage  your 
bank  accounts  the  fast  and  easy  way 
with  this  great  program,  320K 


UTILITIES 


J  Auto  Menu  (1409)  A  professional 
hard  disk  menu  system.  Run  any  of 
your  programs  from  a  customized 
menu.  HD 

J  ViruScan  (1440)  Ivlake  sure  your 
computer  is  virus-free  with  this  vafuable 
utility.  Highly  recommended! 
J  Tree  View  (1418)  A  superior  DOS 
command  shell  with  pull-down  menus. 
J  Telix  (1422)  The  best  telecommuni- 
cations program  available.  HD 
J  VGA  Fonts  (1442)  A  collection  of  fun 
and  interesting  fonts  to  spice  up  your 
VGA  screen  display.  VGA 

-J  Virus  Central  ( 1 441 )  A  program  that 
simplifies  the  use  of  ViruScan  by  pro- 
viding a  menu  oriented  environment 
Requires  ViruScan  512K  CGA,  HD 

J  PC  Pro  (1443)  Combines  a  user 
menu,  a  file  manager,  an  enhanced 
DOS  prompt,  and  many  new  features 
into  one  environment  384K,  HD 


GAMES 


a  Double  Blocks  (1970)  ATERRIFIC 
Tetris  clone  for  1  or  2  players.  Records 
top  scores.  You  will  love  this!! 
a  Video  PokerAJItima  21  (1945)  The 
BEST  poker  and  blackjack  games! 
Zl  Pharaoh's  Tomb  (1974)  Face  mon- 
sters and  traps  as  you  explore  the 
pyramid.  Your  goal  is  to  sun/ive, 
J  Bass  Tour  (1 92S)Fishinyour  choice 
of  lakes.  Try  to  win  the  trophy. 
Zl  ZZT  (1 921 )  Test  your  problem  solv- 
ing ability  and  your  a  rcade  skills  as  you 
battle  your  way  through  43  rooms. 
-J  Field  General  (1931)  Experience 
the  excitement  of  a  pro  football  game 
from  a  coach's  point  of  view.  CGA.  HD 
J  Insanity  (1 936)  Find  your  way  out  of 
this  maze  before  going  insane!  CGA 
Zl  The  Monuments  of  Mars!  (1920) 
Many  tough  levels  filled  with  puzzles, 
traps  and  creatures.  350K,  CGA 
Zl  Arctic  Adventure  (1982)  Contains 
80  new  levels  of  mind  bending,  finger 
twitching,  arcade  action.  3yM.  CGA 


VGA  GAMES 


Zl  Shooting  Gallery  (1990)  Seven 

variations  of  a  shooting  range  on  your 

computer  screen.  VGA,  mouse 

J  VGA  Sharks  (1992)  Recover  lost 

treasure  in  stiark  infested  waters  in  this 

action  arcade  game.  vrjA 

J  Beyond  Columns  (1997)  Beyond  is 

like  Tetris  with  a  tv/ist.  VGA 

J  VGA  Jigsaw  (1993)  Uses  beautiful 

pictures  to  create  puzzles  for  you  to  put 

back  together.  VGA 


EGA  GAMES 


J  The  Last  Half  of  Darkness  (1962) 

Scary  graphics  and  mysterious  puzzles 
to  challenge  your  mind.  EGA.  HD 
-I  Dark  Ages  (1 964)  A  bril  liant  arcade/ 
adventure  game  with  superij  graphics 
and  animation.  400K,  EGA,  286  or  faster 
mHcnint; 

J  Poker  Slot  (1 989)  Plays  just  like  the 
video  poker  machines  you  see  in  casi- 
nos. Great  graphics!  EGA,  mouse 
J  Commander  Keen  (1986)  One  of 
the  best  games  we  have  ever  seen. 
Exceptional  play  and  graphics.  EGA 
J  Double  Link  (1983)  A  great  Tetris 
style  game  that  is  sure  to  keep  you 
challenged.  EGA 


IMPORTANT 

CGA 

=  Requires  Color  Computer 

EGA 

=  Requires  EGA  or  VGA 

HD 

=  Requires  Hard  Drive 

512K 

=  Requires  S12K  RAM 

For  multi-disk  sets 

count  alt  disks  in  set 

'  When  you  order  and  pay  for  5  or 
more  (disks,  select  an  additional  3 
disks  FREE  (limit  3  free  per  order) 


Name 

Address . 
City 


Slate 

Phone  (       ) . 

Visa/MC# - 

Exp,  Date 

Signature 

Disks  Ordered 


-Zip. 


X  S2.49  or  $  1 .99  each . . .  S 

J  Need  3  1/2"  disks? 
If  so  -  add  SI  per  disk 
(including  free  disks) . . ,  $ 

Packing  &  Handling  . . .  S  3.00 
Foreign  Shipping  Charge 
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jCOD  (U.S.  Only) 

add  $4  if  you  reg.  COD  S 

J  Federal  Express  -  add  $4 
(Continental  U.S.  only)  $ 

TOTAL  S 


JCheck'MO       J  VisiajlvlC       -ICO.D. 


GOLD  HILL 
SOFTWARE 


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^  ORDER  TOD 
1-800-234-6467, 


swer  to  an  old  DOS  question,  How  do 
I  rename  a  directory?  Tlie  customary 
way  to  rename  a  directory  has  been  to 
create  a  new  one  witli  the  desired 
name,  copy  the  files  to  the  new  direc- 
tory, and  erase  the  old  one.  But  with 
the  DOS  shell,  you  just  click  on  the  di- 
rectory and  select  Rename  under  the 
File  menu. 

Teaching  an  Old  DOS  New  Tricks 

Finally,  there's  a  group  of  items  for 
which  5.0's  designers  can  be  justly 
proud.  DOS  5.0  eradicates  bugs 
(some  ancient,  some  arising  as  recent- 
ly as  DOS  4.01),  and  it  adds  many 
long-awaited  features. 

Perhaps  the  most  significant  of 
these  is  much  smoother  support  for 
large  drives.  DOS  4.01  supported 
drives  larger  than  32  MB — that  was  al- 
most its  sole  saving  grace — but  it  had 
a  catch.  In  addition  to  the  extra  10K  of 
RAM  that  DOS  4.01  needed,  you  also 
had  to  load  SHARE,  a  memory-resident 
program  that  burned  up  a  few  more  K 
all  by  itself. 

Setting  up  dhves  is  a  bit  easier  with 
the  new  FDISK,  FDISK,  for  those 
who've  avoided  it,  is  one  of  the  pro- 
grams that  you  (or  someone)  must  run 
when  setting  up  a  new  hard  disk. 

Part  of  the  setup  process  divides  a 
hard  drive  into  sections  used  by  differ- 


ent operating  systems — some  for  DOS 
and  some  for  UNIX,  for  example.  Most 
of  us  give  100  percent  of  the  disk  to 
DOS,  but  whoever  sets  up  the  disk 
must  still  make  the  explicit  step  of  allo- 
cating the  entire  disk  to  DOS.  DOS  is 
not  the  primary  partition  by  default. 

Under  previous  versions  of  DOS,  a 
setup  person  occasionally  ran  into  a 
blockade.  If  there's  already  a  partition 
from  an  operating  system  other  than 
DOS  {such  as  UNIX),  FDISK  couldn't  de- 
lete it.  This  put  installers  in  a  difficult  po- 
sition if  they  didn't  have  the  FDISK  for 
the  originating  operating  system.  Only 
the  UNIX  FDISK  could  delete  a  UNIX- 
created  partition.  'With  5.0's  FDISK,  how- 
ever, you  can  now  delete  any  kind  of 
partition. 

Since  DOS  2.0,  CHKDSK  has  done 
an  odd  thing  when  it  encounters  a 
disk  problem  called  lost  clusters.  It 
tells  you  that  you've  got  lost  clusters — 
a  relatively  minor  problem  indicating 
some  confusion  in  DOS's  disk  house- 
keeping— and  offers  to  fix  them.  You 
give  it  the  go-ahead,  but  it  doesn't  ac- 
tually fix  the  problem. 

Then  you  look  more  closely  at  the 
screen.  Before  it  told  you  about  the 
lost  clusters,  it  warned  you  that  the  /F 
option  wasn't  activated,  so  changes 
would  not  be  written  to  disk.  'What  it 
was  trying  to  tell  you  was  that  some- 


thing was  wrong,  but  that  CHKDSK 
wasn't  started  with  the  /F  option  and 
that  CHKDSK  isn't  allowed  to  make 
any  changes  to  the  disk,  even  much- 
needed  fixes,  without  the  /F  option. 

That  doesn't  keep  CHKDSK,  howev- 
er, from  leading  you  to  believe  that  it  is 
going  to  do  something  useful  with  the 
next  few  lines.  It  has  confused  more 
than  one  user,  but  no  longer.  Now 
CHKDSK  is  much  more  direct,  telling 
you  that  you  have  a  problem  and  that 
you  must  rerun  CHKDSK  with  the  /F  op- 
tion in  order  for  it  to  fix  the  problem. 

EDIT,  DIR,  and  More 

A  few  paragraphs  back,  I  did  a  little  left- 
handed  EDLIN  bashing.  EDLIN's  still 
around — for  the  purists — but  now 
there's  EDIT,  a  fairly  complete  full- 
screen text  editor.  It  supports  the 
mouse  and  has  search  and  block  op- 
erations, word-wrap,  and  printing — al 
supported  by  a  pull-down  menu  sys- 
tem, It's  easy  to  use,  it  boasts  good 
help,  and  it's  fast. 

Ever  wanted  to  sort  the  output  from 
a  DIR  command?  The  new  DIR  com- 
mand can  sort  files  by  size,  extension, 
name,  or  date  of  creation.  When  clean- 
ing out  a  directory  to  make  space,  you 
can  sort  the  files  by  size  {DIR  /OS)  so 
that  you  can  figure  out  which  files  will 
yield  the  most  space  once  deleted. 


"Here's  our  last  chance  to  figure  out  ttiat  new  program,  guys.' 


62       COMPUTE 


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win  a  trip  to  Bermuda,  compliments  of  your  favorite  radio  station. 

iS'ht'ther  for  school,  work,  or  the  pursuit  of  trivia,  INI*"ODESK"'  is  a  personal 
reference  library  at  your  fingertips.  This  powerful  desktop  information  source 
gives  you  instant  access  to: 

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•  Strunk  and  White's  Tiie  Elements  of  Style S59. 

•  Inside  Information'" ' SI19. 

(Inside  Information  is  a  writing  tool  for  generating 

J  «"  °  ''■  a11II!3        '^^"^  '^'"^  researd)  for  norels,  ad  copy,  or  any  creative 
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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  155 


DOS  has  iiad  an  almost  human  Ii1e  cy- 
cle. At  birth,  ten  years  ago,  it  was  a 
promising  new  baby  of  an  operating  sys- 
tem. It  couldn't  support  hard  disks  or  se- 
rial printers,  but  it  could  do  basic  things 
fairly  well,  certainly  as  well  as  other  op- 
erating systems  on  microcomputers  at 
the  time. 

PC-DOS  1.0  included  the  COPY, 
ERASE,  and  TYPE  commands:  it  even  in- 
cluded a  version  of  CHKDSK.  DOS  1.1  fol- 
lowed a  bit  later,  offering  a  few  bug  fix- 
es as  well  as  support  for  the  then-new 
360K  double-sided  drives.  (Remember 
that  for  years,  the  driving  force  for  new 
versions  of  DOS  was  support  for  new 
IBM  hardware.) 

Meanwhile,  Microsoft  began  a  tradi- 
tion of  offering  roughly  parallel,  slightly  tar- 
dier, but  more  stable  versions  of  DOS 
called  MS-DOS.  In  truth,  it  never  really 
mattered  all  that  much  whether  you 
used  fvIS-  or  PC-DOS,  since  they  both 
ran  on  almost  all  machines.  The  first  re- 
lease of  l\/IS-DOS  was  version  1.25. 

DOS  [eft  toddlerhood  with  2.0,  which 
saw  the  beginning  of  hard  disk  support, 
■device  drivers,  and  a  few  notions  stolen 
from  an  older  operating  system  typically 
seen  then  on  minicomputers — UNIX. 
DOS  2.0's  quantum  leap  from  1.1  was 
the  kind  of  development  that  would 
make  any  parent  proud. 

Somewhere  after  version  2,  however, 


THE  CHANGING  FACE  OF  DOS 

DOS  entered  a  stormy  adolescence.  PC- 
DOS  2.1  (MS-DOS  2.11}  was  just  a  slight- 
ly more  memory-hungry  version  of  2.0 
that  IBM  released  mainly  to  support  the 
substandard  floppy  drives  it  put  on  ihe 
late  and  unlamented  PCjr  and  the  now- 
forgotten  PC  Portable. 

DOS  3.0  was  an  example  of  more 
growing  pains.  IBlVl  released  it  to  sup- 
port the  new  1.2IVIB  drives  shipped  with 
the  AT,  but  inside  it  was  very  different, 
The  file  system  was  cleaned  up  a  bit, 
and  the  entire  operating  system's 
source  code  was  converted  from  assem- 
bly language  to  C. 

tslone  of  these  changes  were  appar- 
ent to  users,  but  people  certainly  noticed 
the  conversion's  unpleasant  side  effect: 
DOS  3.0  took  up  50  percent  more  mem- 
ory than  2.1. 

DOS  3.1  was  written  to  support  an 
IBM  LAN  product,  3.2  added  support  for 
the  720K  floppies  on  the  IBM  Converti- 
ble and  added  a  tew  commands 
(XCOPY  is  the  most  prominent),  but  it 
was  really  3.3  that  convinced  people  to 
upgrade  to  version  3. 

DOS  3.3  was  a  bit  more  stable  (al- 
though it  wouldn't  run  with  some  compati- 
bles' hard  disk  controllers}  and  provided 
a  way  to  support  hard  drives  larger  than 
32IV1B  through  logical  drives.  Instead  of 
telling  DOS  that  you  had  a  hard  drive  of 
the  unpalatable  size  of,  say,  60MB, 


you'd  tell  it  that  you  had  two  hard 
drives — one  the  maximum  size  of  32tv1B, 
the  other  28MB. 

DOS  4.0  tried  to  present  a  better  face 
to  the  world  in  the  form  of  the  original 
DOS  shell,  but  that  face  suffered  from 
near-terminal  acne.  The  quickly 
patched  4.01  tamed  the  obvious  bugs, 
but  4.0  is  still  far  outsold  by  its  older  broth- 
er, version  3.3. 

Now,  with  DOS  5,0,  it  seems  that  DOS 
has  gone  to  college,  lost  a  little  weight, 
learned  a  few  manners,  and  gotten  a  bit 
of  polish.  It  even  gets  along  better  with 
its  relatives,  OS/2  and  Windows. 

Memory  Munching 

To  get  an  idea-  of  how  DOS's  appetite  for 
memory  has  changed  over  the  years, 
here's  a  comparison  of  DOS  versions 
with  the  memory  requirements  for  each. 

Version  Memory  Requirement  (K) 

1.0  11 

1.1  12 

2.0  24 

2.1  26 
3.Q    37 

3.1  38 

3.2  S3 

3.3  54 
4.01  65 

5.0  61  (without  memory  manager) 

5.0  29  (with  memory  manager) 


63 


//— 


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You  can  finally  display  hidden  files 
(DIR  /AH),  or  for  that  matter,  you  can 
display  only  those  files  that  have  their 
archive  bits  set  (DIR  /AA)— that  is, 
files  that  haven't  been  backed  up  yet. 
And  now  tfiere's  a  feature  wherein  DIR 
w/ill  search  more  than  just  the  current  di- 
rectory Can't  remember  where  you  put 
RESUfvlE?  It's  easy  to  find;  DIR  \  RE- 
SUME /S/B  does  the  trick. 

And  once  you've  decided  on  the 
DIR  switches  you'd  Itke  to  use,  instead 
of  typing  them  each  time  you  issue  the 

64        COIVIPUTE 


DIR  command,  you  can  set  an  environ- 
ment variable.  For  example,  to  always 
sort  on  filename,  you'd  put  SET 
DIRCMD=/ON  in  your  AUTOEX- 
EC.BAT. 

Now  DIR  not  only  shows  you  how 
much  free  space  is  on  the  disk  but  al- 
so computes  the  total  amount  of 
space  taken  by  the  files  whose  names 
It  has  just  shown  you.  For  example, 
type  DIR  ".BAT  and  it  will,  as  always, 
show  you  all  the  files  with  the  BAT  ex- 
tension, but  it  will  also  tell  you  how 


much  space  is  taken  up  in  total  by 
those  files. 

And  once  you've  found  all  of  those 
BAT  files,  perhaps  you'd  like  to  erase 
some,  but  not  all,  of  them.  Just  type 
ERASE  '.BAT  /R  The  /P  means  pause 
and  verify  for  each  file.  One  by  one,  it 
examines  ail  of  the  files,  asking  if  that 
file  should  be  erased. 

Of  course,  having  all  these  new  op- 
tions means  you  may  miskey  now  and 
then,  which  makes  yet  another  new 
command,  DOSKEY,  all  the  more  use- 
ful. DOSKEY  remembers  your  last  20 
or  so  commands.  Using  the  up-  and 
down-arrow  keys,  you  can  recall  a  pre- 
vious command,  edit  it,  and  reissue  it. 
saving  tons  of  keystrokes. 

You  can  even  write  macros  and  as- 
sign them  to  keys,  the  way  you  do 
with  1-2-3  and  other  applications. 
There  have  been  public  domain  ver- 
sions of  this  utility  around  for  years,  but 
it's  nice  to  see  it's  finally  pari  of  DOS. 

If  you've  cursed  DOS's  BASIC  inter- 
preter, either  BASICA  Of  GW-BASIC  de- 
pending on  your  DOS  version,  DOS 
5.0  has  a  surprise  for  you.  The  new 
DOS  comes  with  a  reduced-function  ver- 
sion of  fvlicrosoft's  Oi//cy<6/AS/C  compil- 
er. It  even  ships  with  a  few  sample  pro- 
grams that  are  a  bit  more  interesting 
than  the  old  mortgage  calculator. 

Space  is  running  out,  so  let's  see 
what's  left.  The  ATTRIB  command  can 
now  modify  hidden  and  system  attrib- 
utes, in  addition  to  the  archive  and 
read-only  bits,  which  it  could  modify  be- 
fore. 

fvlODE  CO80,50  shows  a  50-iine 
screen  on  VGA:  there's  a  43-line 
mode  for  EGA.  fvlODE  wili  also  speed 
up  your  keyboard. 

And  all  these  neat  new  features 
cried  out  for  another  new  feature:  built- 
in  help.  Can't  remember  the  new  syn- 
tax for  DIR?  No  problem.  Just  type  DIR 
/?,  and  you'll  get  a  complete  listing  of 
the  options  and  syntax  for  the  com- 
mand. 

So  there  you  have  it.  Not  only  is  fvlS- 
DOS  5.0  a  stable  replacement  for  its  old- 
er brother  4.01.  but  it  reduces  the 
need  for  file  recovery  tools  like  The  Nor- 
ton Utilities  (around  $100),  task  switch- 
ers like  Software  Carousel  (around 
$80),  386  memory  managers  (around 
$100),  hobby-level  BASIC  compilers 
(around  $70),  and  full-screen  text  edi- 
tors (S50  to  $400).  Not  a  bad  deal.  I'd 
say  DOS  5.0  is  the  software  bargain  of 
the  year. 


MS-DOS  5.0 

Microsolt 

One  Microsoft  Way 

Redmond.  Washington  98052 

(206)  882-8080 

$99.95 


ONLINE 


Denny  Atkin 


No  matter 

when  problems 

arise,  tlie  help 

you  need  can  be 

found  online. 


A  NEW  MEANING 
FOR  ONLINE  HELP 

It's  9:45  on  Friday  night,  and 
you  can't  get  your  new  En- 
dows spreadsheet  to  print  side- 
ways on  your  ink-jet  printer. 
The  software  company's  offic- 
es won't  open  again  until  Mon- 
day morning,  so  you  can't  call 
the  technical  support  line. 
What  will  you  do? 

You  could  try  calling  local 
bulletin  board  systems  and 
posting  a  plea  for  help  there, 
but  the  odds  are  pretty  slim 
that  someone  else  in  Hat- 
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one familiar  with  your  problem. 

The  first  place  to  cfieck  is  in 
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the  company  has  an  online  sup- 
port round  table,  chances  are 
good  you'll  find  it  listed  there. 
If  not.  log  on  to  your  favorite  net- 
work, open  your  terminal  pro- 
gram's capture  buffer,  and  get 
a  list  of  ail  of  the  special  inter- 
est groups  (SIGs)  on  the  net- 
work. Log  off  and  peruse  the 
list  offline,  looking  for  SIGs 
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your  problem.  Since  you  won't 
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sure checking  the  list  offline, 
you  might  find  more  areas  ap- 
propriate to  your  problem. 

Once  you  find  a  SIG  that 
might  help  with  your  problem, 
all  you  can  do  is  upload  your 
problem  and  hope  that  some- 
one ansv/ers  you  in  time, 
right?  Wrong!  Why  wait  for  an 
answer  that  might  already  be 
there? 

fvlany  online  sen/ices  will  let 
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ries for  occurrences  of  a  spe- 
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feature,  use  it  to  search  for  an 
appropriate    word— in    this 


case,  perhaps  sideways  or 
printing.  If  not,  then  open  your 
capture  buffer  and  invoke  a 
nonstop  read  command  of  the 
messages  in  that  particular  cat- 
egory. Close  the  buffer,  log 
off,  and  load  the  capture  file  in- 
to a  text  editor. 

You  can  now  use  your  text 
editor's  search  command  to 
hunt  quickly  through  the  file 
for  words  that  might  flag  a  mes- 
sage that  relates  to  your  prob- 
lem. With  any  luck,  one  of 
these  methods  will  find  a  mes- 
sage relating  to  your  problem 
and  how  to  solve  it. 

If  not,  though,  don't  de- 
spair. Chances  are  you  can 
leave  a  message  online  and 
still  get  some  helpful  advice  be- 
fore your  deadline, 

Check  for  a  support  area 
for  the  publisher  of  your  spread- 
sheet program.  If  that  turns  up 
nothing  online,  check  for  a  Win- 
dows support  area.  If  you're 
on  BIX,  you'll  find  IBIVl.WIN- 
DOWS.  On  CompuServe, 
there's  the  fviS  Windows  Ad- 
vanced Forum  (WINADV),  the 
Windows  New  Users  Forum 
(WINNEW),  and  three  Win- 
dows [hiid-pany  forums  (WIN- 
APA,  WINAPB,  WINAPC). 

If  you  don't  have  any  luck 
there,  find  the  general  forum 
for  your  computer  platform,  in 
this  case  an  IBf^  compatible. 
On  BIX,  check  IBM. PC;  on  GE- 
nie,  go  to  the  IBMPC  Roundta- 
ble  at  page  615;  on  Compu- 
Serve, check  the  IBM  Applica- 
tions forum  (IBMAPP);  and  on 
People/Link,  GO  \BM.  You 
might  also  want  to  see  if 
there's  a  SIG  run  by  your  print- 
er manufacturer,  since  you're 
having  a  printing  problem. 

Hooray!  You've  found  atop- 
ic discussing  your  spread- 
sheet program.  The  next  thing 
to  do  is  to  compose  a  mes- 
sage describing  your  problem 
and  asking  for  help.  It's  smart 
to  leave  messages  in  more 
than  one  area,  in  the  hope 
that  more  people  will  see  your 
message  and  you'll  be  likely  to 


get  an  answer  faster. 

When  you  type  your  mes- 
sage, make  sure  you  provide 
all  the  necessary  details.  In- 
clude your  hardware  configu- 
ration, DOS  version,  software 
versions,  and  any  TSRs  or  oth- 
er applications  you  may  be  run- 
ning at  the  time.  Explain  exact- 
ly what's  happening  when  the 
problem  occurs.  The  more  de- 
tail you  provide,  the  more  like- 
ly someone  will  come  up  with 
a  solution  for  your  problem. 

If  you  post  your  message  in 
more  than  one  SIG,  though, 
don't  leave  the  same  long,  de- 
tailed message  in  each  one. 
That  would  be  costly  to  you 
and  to  the  people  who  have  to 
read  your  message  over  and 
over  again.  In  the  other  areas, 
post  something  along  these 
lines:  "I'm  having  problems 
printing  to  my  Howitzer  BJ-220 
printer  using  the  Aileron  for  Win- 
dows spreadsheet.  If  you 
think  you  can  help,  please  see 
message  42  in  the  Windows/ 
Spreadsheets  conference." 

You  could  ask  that  any  help- 
ful hints  be  sent  via  electronic 
mail,  which  would  be  easier  to 
check  the  next  day,  but  then 
you'd  be  depriving  others  of  in- 
formation that  could  potential- 
ly help  them  later. 

Next,  you  log  off  and  go  to 
bed.  The  following  morning 
you  log  on,  and  someone  has 
referred  you  to  a  new  printer 
driver  that  you  can  download 
on  that  service.  You  grab  the 
driver  and  install  it,  and  your 
spreadsheet  prints  beautifully. 
Even  if  somebody  didn't  leave 
a  solution  to  your  problem, 
chances  are  good  that  you'll 
find  some  hints  that  will  help 
you  isolate  the  problem. 

The  next  time  your  work 
comes  to  a  ghnding  halt  due 
to  a  technical  problem  at  a 
weird  hour,  don't  get  ticked 
off;  log  on  instead. 

Send  comments  and  sug- 
gestions to  DENNYA  on  BIX 
and  GEnie,  DENNY  on  Plink, 
or  75500.3602  on  CIS.  □ 

65 


TIPS  &  TOOLS 


When  I  leach  PC 

seminars  the 

most  controversial 

advice  in  the 

whole  class  is  to 

leave  the  PC 

on  all  the  time. 


Really  Wild  Cards 

Sometimes  you  want  to  be 
able  to  use  wildcard  specifica- 
tions on  programs  or  DOS 
commands  that  don't  support 
them.  It  might  be  convenient 
to  enter  the  command  TYPE 
'.TXT  to  read  a  directory  full 
of  text  files.  But  it  doesn't 
work  that  way. 

However,  STAR. BAT  does 
thai — and  one  better.  It  allows 
you  to  use  lists  of  file  specifi- 
cations! For  example,  enter 
the  command  STAR  TYPE 
*.TXT  *.BAS  TESIC  to  run 
the  TYPE  command  on  all 
text  files,  all  BASIC  files,  and 
the  C  program  TEST.  The 
STAR  program  does  its  mag- 
ic witfi  the  sorely  neglected 
FOR  command  in  batch: 

ECHO  OFF 
CLS 

HEM  Check  for  at  least  2  para- 
meters. 

IF  "%1"  =  "  "  GOTO  Syntax 

IF  "%r  =  "  "  GOTO  Syntax 

REM  %%1  Is  the  command  or 

REM  program.  Everything  else 

REM  is  matched  by  the  file 

REM  specilication. 

FOR  %%r  IN  (%2  %3  %4  %5  %6 
%7  %8  %9)  DO  %1  %%r 

GOTO  Bottom 

:Syntax 

ECHO  Need  a  program  or  com- 
mand name  and  one  or  more 
file  specifications. 

ECHO  For  example: 

ECHO  STAR  TYPE*. DOC 

ECHO  STAR  OB  S.BAS 
TIMER.BAS 

:BDttom 

The  heart  of  the  program  is 
its  FOR  loop.  %1  is  the  name 
of  the  program  or  command. 
%2  through  %9  are  the  com- 
mand line  parameters.  Note 
that  the  program  will  quit  if  it 
doesn't  find  at  least  a  pair  of 
parameters:  the  program  or 
command  name,  and  at  least 
one  file  specification.  The 
%%r  gets  replaced  by  each 
file  matching  each  file  specifi- 
cation; in  the  TYPE  example 


above,  all  files  ending  in  TXT 
are  matched  and  copied  into 
%%r  file  by  file  in  directory 
order. 

You  could  improve  this  pro- 
gram even  further  by  using  a 
SHIfT.  That  would  give  you 
even  more  than  the  eight  file 
specifications  offered  by  this 
version  of  STAR,  although  I've 
never  used  more  than  three 
or  four. 

TOM  CAMPBELL 
IRVINE,  CA 


Always  On 


When  I  teach  PC  troubleshoot- 
ing seminars,  the  most  contro- 
versial advice  in  the  whole 
three-day  class  is  to  leave  the 
PC  on  all  the  time.  Why? 
Here  are  a  few  short  reasons: 

•  Turning  electronic  devices 
on  and  off  subjects  them  to 
a  power-on  or  ballistic 
surge.  Light  bulbs  burn  out 
mainly  when  you  turn  them 
on,  right?  The  same  princi- 
ple is  involved  with  your 
computer, 

•  The  small  motors  on  hard 
disks  have  a  hard  time  start- 
ing up  in  the  morning.  Grant- 
ed, leaving  them  on  all  the 
time  will  shorten  their  lives 
due  to  the  greater  de- 
mands on  the  motor  bear- 
ings, but  generally  the  bear- 
ings aren't  the  things  that 
die.  What  kills  hard  drives  is 
that  one  day  they  can't  get 
started.  Leave  them  on  and 
avoid  the  start-up  problem. 

•  Think  of  all  the  things  that 
you  use  every  day  whose  cir- 
cuits are  active  all  the  time: 
electronic  clocks,  thermo- 
stats, TVs  with  the  instant- 
on  feature.  These  are  all  fair- 
ly reliable,  right? 

There  is  a  catch  to  leaving 
your  PC  on  all  the  time:  You 
have  to  make  sure  that  you've 
got  good  surge  protection 
and  a  good  fan.  With  a  good 
fan,  your  PC  can  operate  in 
the  desert  at  105  degrees 


and  be  perfectly  happy. 

MARK  MINASI 
ARLINGTON.  VA 

Reet  Delete 

Sometimes  it's  nice  to  have 
DOS  ask  whether  I'm  sure  1 
want  to  delete  all  the  files  in  a 
subdirectory,  but  most  of  the 
lime  I  know  what  I'm  doing, 
and  I'd  just  as  soon  not  have 
to  ansv/er  any  questions  from 
the  operating  system. 

Use  DOS  redirection  to 
solve  this  problem.  Create  a 
file  called  YES.TXT  with  a  text 
editor  or  with  COPY  CON.  In 
this  file  put  the  letter  V  fol- 
lowed by  a  carriage  return. 
Save  it  as  an  ASCII  file. 

Next,  enter  the  following 
line  in  a  batch  file  and  save  it 
as  EMPTY. BAT 

ERASE  *.*  <  YES.TXT 

Now,  when  you  give  the 
command  EMPTY,  the  batch 
file  runs  and  gets  its  input 
from  the  file  YES.TXT  The  Y 
answers  the  Are' you  sure? 
prompt  for  you.  You  can  put 
the  YES.TXT  file  anywhere  on 
your  system  (I  keep  mine  in 
the  BATCH  subdirectory)  as 
long  as  you  include  its  full 
path  when  you  use  it  in  batch 
files. 

The  following  command  de- 
letes everything  in  a  subdirec- 
tory, but  this  method  lets  you 
see  what's  going  on  while  the 
files  are  being  deleted: 

FOR  %%F  IN  (*.*)  DO  ERASE 

%%F 

This  deletes  every  file  in 
the  directory,  but  it  does  so 
by  executing  the  ERASE  com- 
mand for  each  file,  giving  you 
a  chance  to  double-check 
the  files  as  they  are  being  elim- 
inated. If  you  have  second 
thoughts  about  tossing  a  cer- 
tain file,  use  an  UNERASE  util- 
ity to  bring  it  back. 

TONY  ROBERTS 
eREENSBORO.  NC 


66       COMPUTE 


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TIPS  &  TOOLS 


Graphics  Botching 

You  might  assume  that,  like 
most  utilities,  batch  files  won't 
work  in  graphics  mode.  Not 
true — they  work  just  fine.  Show- 
ing remarkable  foresight,  the 
designers  of  the  PC  wrote  the 
BIOS  so  that  all  text  services 
work  equally  well  in  either 
mode,  and  DOS  displays  text 
with  the  help  of  BIOS  servic- 
es. So  batch  files  will  work.  To 
try  it  out,  create  a  file  called 
TEST.BAT: 

REM  TEST.BAT 

PAUSE  Note  that  text  displays  just 
line  in  graphics  mode. 

Then  fire  up  BASIC  or  GW- 
BASIC  and  run  this  short  pro- 
gram: 

100  REM  Go  to  graphics  mode. 

110  SCREEN  2 

120  REM  Drop  to  DOS  and  run  the 

130  REM  TESIBAT  program. 

140  SHELL  "TEST" 

150  REM  Wait  tor  the  user  to 

160  REM  press  Enter. 

170  INPUT 

TOM  CAMPBELL 
IRVINE,  CA 

Blank  Echo 

Here  is  yet  another  look  at 
echoing  a  blank  line  in  a 
batch  tile.  You  can't  just  type 
ECHO  all  by  itself  on  a  line,  be- 
cause you'll  get  a  message 
like  ECHO  is  off. 

ECHO  Is  a  three-part  com- 
mand: 

•  With  no  arguments,  it  re- 
ports status:  ECHO  is  on,  or 
ECHO  is  off. 

•  With  arguments  ON  or  OFF, 
it  enables  or  disables  com- 
mand echoing. 

•  With  any  other  argument,  it 
just  repeats  back  what  you 
tell  it:  ECHO  Hello  will  just 
make  the  PC  say  Hello  on 
the  screen, 

How,  then,  to  create  a 
blank  line  on  the  screen? 

68        COMPUTE 


There  are  three  approach- 
es. The  first  is  to  use  the 
ANSI, SYS  escape  codes  to 
move  the  cursor  around,  creat- 
ing blank  lines  by  skipping 
lines.  It's  too  much  work.  And 
if  ANSI. SYS  wasn't  loaded  by 
the  user's  CONFIG.SYS  file, 
this  approach  won't  work. 

An  easier  way  is  just  to  use 
the  ECHO  command  with  a  pe- 
riod (.)  after  it.  Try  it  out: 

©ECHO  OFF 

ECHO  The  lollowing  is  a  blank 

line: 
ECHO. 
ECHO  See? 

(Editor's  note:  This  tech- 
nique won't  work  consistently 
in  all  versions  of  DOS.) 

The  third  way  is  to  hold 
down  the  Alt  key  and  type 
255  on  the  numeric  keypad  af- 
ter the  ECHO  command.  This 
enters  a  blank  character  after 
the  ECHO  command,  which 
will  print  to  the  screen. 

MARK  MINASI 
ARLINGTON,  VA 

The  Straight  and  Narrow 

Sometimes  you  need  to  em- 
ploy DOS  utilities  in  a  batch 
file,  but  you  can't  ensure  that 
they  are  available  on  the  tar- 
get machine.  For  example, 
this  handy  tine  displays  a  sort- 
ed directory: 

DIR  I  SORT 

However,  it  requires  that 
SORT.EXE  appear  some- 
place on  the  path.  IF  EXIST 
won't  do  it,  because  in  order 
to  use  it,  you  must  know  the 
full  pathname  of  the  file. 

FOR  comes  to  the  rescue, 
thanks  to  the  fact  that  DOS 
treats  the  semicolon  as  a  sep- 
arator. Try  this  program  twice. 
The  first  time,  use  the  name  of 
a  program  you  know  is  on  the 
path;  for  example,  SORTEXE. 
Next,  try  a  name  you  know 
doesn't  exist;  for  example, 
LUNKHEAD.TMP.  In  both  cas- 


es you  should  remember  the 
extension:  SORT  won't  work, 
but  SORTEXE  will. 

ECHO  OFF 

CLS 

IF"%r'=="  "  GOTO  END 

SET  TMP=N 

FOR  %%l  IN  (%PATH%}  DO  IF 

EXIST  %%f  \%1  SET  TMP=Y 
IF  %TMP%  =  Y  ECHO  %1  is 

on  the  path. 
IF  %TMP%  ==  N  ECHO  %1  is  not 

on  the  patii. 
SET  TIV1P= 
lEND 

The  SET  TMP=N  line 
means  Make  the  value  of  the 
environment  variable  T!\AP  the 
letter  N.  This  is  short  for  No. 
because  we  assume  the  file 
doesn't  exist.  (If  you  are  al- 
ready using  TMP  as  an  envi- 
ronment variable,  use  some 
other  variable  name  in  place 
of  TMP  in  the  example.)  The 
next  line  is  the  heart  of  the  pro- 
gram. The  FOR  loop  search- 
es the  path  directory  by  direc- 
tory doing  an  IF  EXIST 
search  in  each  one.  If  the  file 
is  found,  the  value  in  TMP 
changes  to  Y.  You  can  now 
query  this  value  anytime  you 
want  in  the  program.  The  pro- 
gram then  displays  the  results 
of  the  search  and  removes 
the  TMP  environment  varia- 
ble, since  it's  no  longer  need- 
ed by  your  environment. 

TOM  CAMPBELL 
IRVINE.  CA 


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er PC  users,  send  it  along 
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I  Circle  Reader  Service  Number  182 


H  J- 


C^  Commodore 

AMIGA 


PROGRAMMING  POWER 


Tom  Campbell 


Global  variables 

are  tempting. 

but  lii<e  spicy  lood, 

ttiey  can  come 
baclc  to  haunt  you. 


GLOBAL 
WARNINGS 

If  you're  a  regular  reader  of 
this  column,  you're  familiar 
with  my  diatribes  against  glob- 
al variables:  They  make  code 
harder  to  maintain  and  reuse, 
they  can  be  dangerous,  and 
so  on.  But  globals  offer  an  im- 
portant feature  that  local  vari- 
ables don't:  They  retain  their 
values  between  subroutine 
calls. 

Of  course,  this  can  be  a 
trap.  You  may  find  yourself 
dealing  with  an  unexpected 
bug  (then  again,  how  many  of 
them  are  expected?)  in  which 
the  value  of  a  global  is  sup- 
posed to  change  but  doesn't, 
it  can  be  a  long  time  before 
you  discover  that  you've  cre- 
ated a  local  variable  in  one  of 
your  routines  with  the  same 
name  as  the  global. 

Another  example:  In  some 
multitasking  environments, 
where  several  copies  of  the 
same  program  can  be  running 
at  the  same  time,  the  global  var- 
iable space,  like  the  code,  is 
a  shared  resource.  So  if 
you've  written  a  word  proces- 
sor and  user  A  adjusts  the  tab 
settings  while  user  B  is  pains- 
takingly editing  a  complex  ta- 
ble, user  B's  work  might  sud- 
denly take  a  nasty  turn  for  the 
worse  the  next  time  the  dis- 
play is  reformatted,  because 
you've  put  the  tab  settings  in 
a  global  variable. 

Closer  to  home  is  Microsoft 
C.  which  relied  on  globals  to 
such  an  extent  that  a  huge 
number  of  its  library  routines, 
including  common  ones  tike 
scanf(),  didn't  work  under  Win- 
dows or  OS/2  because  they 
multitask.  The  list  of  verboten 
routines  dwindles  with  each  re- 
lease of  the  compiler,  but  the 
lesson  remains — not  even  the 
biggest  developers  are  im- 
mune to  questionable  program- 
ming practices. 

Disregarding  for  the  mo- 


ment that  you  probably  pro- 
gram on  a  PC  and  don't  have 
to  worry  about  multiple  users, 
there's  a  third  kind  of  variable 
called  static  that  gives  you  the 
best  of  both  worlds.  It  has  the 
same  scope  as  a  local  varia- 
ble, yet  it  saves  the  value  of 
thai  variable  between  subrou- 
tine calls.  Statics  may  be  ini- 
tialized when  declared,  but 
the  initialization  is  performed 
only  once — not  each  time  the 
routine  is  called.  The  name  stat- 
ic is  a  C  term;  Turbo  Pascal 
gives  these  variables  the  con- 
fusing moniker  typed  con- 
stants. They're  declared  in  the 
CONST  section,  yet,  unlike  nor- 
mal constants,  their  values 
may  be  altered. 

How  can  statics  coexist 
with  the  apparently  exclusive 
global  and  local  types?  By  trick- 
ery in  the  compiler. 

Local  variables  are  kept  on 
the  stack,  which  on  many  ma- 
chines (80;<86  machines 
among  them)  can  be  just 
about  anywhere  in  memory. 
Even  between  invocations  of 
the  same  routine,  that  rou- 
tine's stack  can  be  in  a  differ- 
ent place,  and  it's  tracked  by 
a  variable  on  the  CPU  called 
the  stack  pointer.  Since  the 
same  local  variable  could  be 
stored  in  a  hundred  different 
places  inside  of  a  second,  you 
can't  rely  on  its  value. 

Globals,  on  the  other  hand, 
sit  placidly  in  the  same  place 
all  the  time.  The  compiler  itself 
is  therefore  written  to  "remem- 
ber" the  name  of  a  global  varia- 
ble during  the  entire  compila- 
tion. It  remembers  a  local  var- 
iable only  while  it's  generating 
code  for  the  routine  in  which 
that  variable  was  declared  (as 
well  as  any  nested  routines,  in 
the  case  of  Pascal)  and  lets 
the  slack  pointer  track  its  phys- 
ical location  in  memory  at  run- 
time. As  you've  probably 
guessed,  a  static  is  stored  in 
the  same  area  of  memory  as 
global  data,  but  its  name  is  on- 
ly meaningful  to  the  compiler 


while  the  routine  it  was  de- 
clared in  is  being  compiled. 

This  month's  program  is  ON- 
PATH.EXE.  which  lets  you  find 
all  files  on  the  path  that  meet 
the  file  specification  you  give  it. 
To  use  it,  enter  ONPATH  file- 
spec  at  the  command  line. 
Here  are  some  examples; 

ONPATH  TLINK 

ONPATH  C0MMAND.COM 

ONPATH  README.TXT  >  LPT1: 

Don't  give  it  a  leading  directo- 
ry name,  as  in  ONPATH  C: 
\DOS\LINK.'.  It  won't  work 
right,  and  if  you  want  to  re- 
strict your  search  to  a  directo- 
ry, you  might  as  well  use  DIR. 
The  first  example  finds  all 
files  starting  with  TLINK  and 
ending  with  any  extension. 
For  example,  my  path  is 
PATH=E:\BAT;E:\BIN;C:\DOS; 
E:\W0RD5;C:\WIND0WS; 
E:\B0RLANDC\BIN;E:\GEO 
and  the  search  for  TLINK  on 
my  machine  turned  up  this  dis- 
quieting result: 

E:\B1N\TLINK.EXE 
53414  05-07-90  02:QOa 
E:\BORLANDC\BIN\TLINK.EXE 
72585  02-13-91  02:00a 
E:\BORLANDC\BIN\TLINK.CFG 
19  03-Z4-91  01:52a 

3  File(s)  found. 

When  dozens  of  strange  er- 
rors popped  up  in  a  program 
after  I  installed  a  new  compil- 
er, I  discovered  I  needed  ON- 
PATH. The  same  program 
had  compiled  just  fine  before. 
You  can"  see  the  culprit 
above.  Two  different  versions 
of  the  linker.  Since  E:\B1N 
came  before  E:\BOR- 
LANDCNBIN  on  the  path,  the 
older  linker  was  being  run 
first. 

The  second  example,  us- 
ing the  filespec  COM- 
MAND.COM,  will  find  all  cop- 
ies of  C0MMAND.COM  on 
your  path.  1  found  three  ver- 
sions of   COMMAND,   from 


70        COtiflPUTE 


DOS  versions  2.0,  3.2,  and  3, 
on  the  path  of  one  machine 
(not  mine!).  Note  that,  like 
DIR,  ONPATH  appends  ".*" 
as  the  extension  if  you  don't 
provide  one.  ONPATH's  out- 
put is  redirectable,  as  you 
can  see  in  the  third  example. 

A  static  variable  is  used  in 
the  routine  NextDirOnPath, 
which  is  passed  a  string  to 
which  it  writes  the  name  of 
the  next  directory  on  the 
path.  If  you  have  the  very 
short  path  C:\iDOS;E:\BIN, 
the  first  call  will  write  C:\  DOS 
to  its  Result  parameter. 

Note  that  NextDirOnPath 
thoughtfully  removes  trailing 
semicolons  and  backslashes. 
The  second  call  writes  E:\  BIN 
to  Result,  and  the  last  call  re- 
turns an  empty  string.  NextDi- 
rOnPath must  obviously  save 
the  ever-shrinking  path  some- 
where, yet  ONPATH. PAS 
sports  no  global  variables. 

NextDirOnPath  works  its 
magic  by  storing  the  path  in  a 
typed  constant,  Turbo  Pas- 
cal's confusing  name  for  stat- 
ic variables.  The  first  time 
NextDirOnPath  is  called,  the  in- 
put variable  Result  is  empty, 
so  Turbo's  GetEnv  function  is 
used  to  extract  the  PATH  varia- 
ble from  your  DOS  environ- 
ment, whereupon  it's  written 
to  the  static  variable  (or 
typed  constant)  SavedPath. 

On  later  calls  to  NextDirOn- 
Path, Result  will  be  a  nonemp- 
ty value,  so  GelEnv  is  only 
called  the  first  time.  A  search 
now  commences  for  the  first 
semicolon.  When  it's  found, 
the  path  up  to  that  point  is  cop- 
ied into  Result,  it's  amputated 
from  the  beginning  of  Saved- 
Path, and  the  surviving  path 
is  automatically  available  for 
the  next  call  to  NextDirOnPa- 
th. You  could  have  a  global 
named  SavedPath  and  varia- 
bles named  SavedPath  in  eve- 
ry routine,  yet  the  static  varia- 
ble SavedPath  would  retain 
its  value  and  be  visible  to  this 
routine  and  this  one  only.     □ 


UEES  CHT,  DOS:  (  OHPATH  showE  files  matching  *1  on  the  pith, 

PROCEDURE  Pause;   (  Pause  on  any  Jtey  except  Esc.  which  <nits  to  DOS. 
VAR 

ch  :  CHAR; 
BEGIN 

IF  KeyPressed  then  r  r(  a  >:ey  was  pressed,  pull  it 

BEGIN  j  off  the  keyboard  buffer.  Then 

ch  :=  ReadKey;  I  check  to  see  if  it's  Esc. 

IF  ch  =  #27  THQl  (  If  it  is,  iiuit  to  DOE,  setting 

halt  (II;  (  ERRORLEVEL  to  1. 

REPEAT  (  If  it's  not  Esc,  wait  around 

UNTIL  KeyPressed;  (  for  another  keypress;  then 

ch  :=  ReadKey;  (  toss  that  one  into  the  bit 

QID;  t  bucket  as  well. 
EMD;  (  PROCEDURE  Pausel 


PROCEDUBE  NextDirOnS>ath|VSE  Result 
VAE 

Semicolon  :  INTEGER; 

caisT 

SavedPath  :  STRIJiG  =  '  • : 
BEGIN 

IF  Result  o  ■ '  THEN 

SavedPath  : =  GetEnv { ' PATH ' i ; 
Semicolon  :  =  Pes  ( ' ;  ' .  SavedPathI  . 
Result  ;^Copy(SavedPath,  1,  Pos( 


:  STHIHGI ;  (  Writes  the  name  of 
(  the  next  dir  on  the  path  to 
(  Result,  saving  the  remaining 
I  path  in  a  local  static  variable^ 


{  (which  Turbo  Pascal  calls      } 

(  •typed'  constant.  \ 

If  the  input  is  empty,  it's  the) 

first  time.  Save  PATH=  here.   } 

Trim  off  any  semicolon,  tf  need) 

.  .'.  SavedPathI);  {  be.) 

(  Delete  trailing  semicolons.    ) 


IF  Semicolon' >  0  THEN 

Delete{Result,  SesniColon.  1) 
ELSE  {  Delete  trailing  backslashes. 

BEGIN  Result  :=  SavedPath;  SavedPath  :=  '•;  END; 
IF  Pes  I  A',  Result!  =  Length  I  Result  I  THEN 

Delete (Result,  Length (Result) .  1); 
Delete  (SavedPath.  1.  Semicolon);  (  Remove  this  dir  name  from  the 
END;  {  PROCEDURE  NextDir  J        {  locally  preserved  pathname. 


FUNCTIcai  LeadingZero  (Value 
VAE 

tnrp    :    STRING; 
BEGIN 

Str (Value: O.cmp! ; 

IF  Length (trap)    =   1  THEN 
tmg    ;  =    '  0  '    +   tesj?; 

LeadingZeiro    :  =   tffl)?; 
END; 

PROCEDURE  WriteFilenafliednsertPsth 

VAE 

Display  :  STRING; 
Index,  Len  :  INTEGER; 
ParsedTime  :  DateTiffle; 

BEGIN 


INTEGER)  ;  STRING; 

Stolen  straight  out  of  the  TP   ! 

online  help,  this  formats  Value) 

in  a  way  siBilar  to  DIR'fi--withl 

{  a  leading  0  if  the  number  is    ) 

i   only  one  digit  wide.         > 


STRING;  Dirlnfo  :  SearchReo) ; 
This  routine  displays  a 
filenajne  in  a  manner  similar 
to  that  of  DIR.  except  that  it  . 
.  precedes  it  with  the  path.  That) 
(  maVes  it  easier  to  see  matches,) 


Display  :=  InsertPath  +  Dlrlnfo.Name; 
Len  :=  Length (Display) ; 
IF  Len  >  <5  THaJ  Len  :=  40; 
Write (Display) ; 

FOR  Index  :=  Len  TO  40  DO  Write! '  •) 
Write  I Dirinf o . Siie ; 8 1 ; 
Write ( •  ■ 1 ; 

UnpackTimelDirlnfo.Time,  ParsedTime) 
WITH  ParsedTime  IX) 
BEGIN 

Year  :=  Year  -  1900; 

Trfrite (LeadingZera(Honth) . ' - ' ,LeadingZero(Day) 


(  Create  a  40-character  ) 
(  width  pathname.  Truncate) 
(  if  it's  over  40.  ) 
(  Display  the  filename;  ) 
(  then  pad  with  spaces  ) 
(  Right-justify  the  size.  ■) 

{   Parse  the  time  into  three) 
(  fields,  then  display  it  ) 
(  with  leading  Og.       ] 


IF  hour  -   12  THEN  Hour  :.  24; 
IF  Hour  =  0  THEN  Hour  ;.  12; 
IF  hour  <  13  THEN 

WriteLn(LeadingZero(hour) ,  ': 
ELSE 

WriteLn(LeadingZero(hour-12) , 
END; 
(  PROCEDURE  writeFilename  ) 


(  TricJcy  hiandling  for  noon) 
(  and  midnight .  ) 

*,  LeadingZero(min} .  'a') 

':',  LeadingZero(rtLin) .  *p'); 


■); 


STRING; 
Rewrite  (Output ) ;  {  Hake  output  redirectable.  ) 


END; 

VAR 

Dirlnfo  :  SearchRec; 
FilesFound,  Index  ;  INTEGER; 
FileSpec.  NextDir.  NextNaaie 

BEGIN 

Assign (Output 
FilesFound  := 
FileSpec  : =  ' 

NextDir  : =  ■ * 

IP  ParainCount 

ELSE 
BEGIN 

Write) 'File  or  file  specification  to  search  for 
HeadLn( FileSpec] ; 
IF  FileSpec  =  • '  THEN 
Haltd); 
END; 
TFPosr,",  FileSpec)  s  0  THai  (  Add  an  inplied 


0  THEN  FileSpec  :=  ParamStrd) 


FileSpec  :=  FileSpec 
NextDirOnPath  I  NextDir)  ; 
WHILE  NextDir  ■:>  '  ■  DO 

BEGIN 

NextName  :=  NextDir  * 


Enter  to  quit. ') ; 


the  way  ) 


.  (  DIR  does,  if  no  extension.  I 
(  Get  next  dir  name  from  path.  J 
(  For  each  directory  on  the  path: ) 


-   '\'  *  FileSpec;  (  Get  full  file  spi 

FindFirst (NextName.  Archive,  DirInfoi;i  Find  first  match 
IF  DOSError  =  0  THQ(     (  If  match  is  found,  display  it 
BEGIN 

IrfriteFilename(NextDir  *  '\',  Dirlnfo); 
INC  (FilesFound)  ;     [  Track  numtier  of  files  found. 
END; 
WHILE  DOSError  tt  0  DO 
BEGIN 

Pause; 

FlndNext IDirlnto); 
IF  DOSError  .  0  THEN 
BEGIN 

WriteFilename (NextDir 

INC  (FilesFound)  i 

END; 
END| 
NextDirOnPath(NextDir) ;   (  Repeat  this  process  for  each 
END;  (  directory  on  the  path. 

trfriteLnC         '.  FilesFound,  ■  File(E)  foaio.'l; 
END. 


) 


(  As  long  as  matching  files  can  ) 

i  be  found  in  this  directory.  ) 
i  allow  user  to  press  Esc  to  quit) 

(  or  space  to  pause.  Then  print  j 

(  the  filename  in  question  with  ) 

its  location  on  the  path.  ) 

'~   'W    Dirlnfo); 


71 


POINT  &  CLICK 


Clifton  Karnes 


Where  your 

GUI  is  a  tortoise, 

a  cache 

wili  bring  It  up 

to  speed. 


COLD  HARD  CACHE 
FOR  YOUR  GUI 

Whether  you're  running  Win- 
dows, GeoWorks  Ensemble, 
or  a  more  exotic  graphical  us- 
er interface,  one  thing's  for 
sure:  You  need  a  disk  cache. 
Why?  Because  all  GUIs  are 
disk-intensive.  They  simply 
can't  keep  everything  they  of- 
fer in  the  computer's  memory, 
so  they  routinely  swap  pro- 
gram code  and  data  from  disk 
to  memory  and  back.  Every 
time  your  computer  reads 
from  the  disk,  your  system 
slows  down.  Just  how  much  de- 
pends on  how  fast  your  hard 
disk  is. 

By  far,  the  most  cost-effec- 
tive way  to  speed  up  your 
hard  disk  is  to  use  a  disk 
cache.  This  is  such  an  impor- 
tant tool  that  Windows  actual- 
ly includes  a  cache  as  stan- 
dard equipment,  and  it  auto- 
matically installs  it  for  you. 

GEOS  doesn't  come  bun- 
dled with  a  cache,  probably  be- 
cause its  programs  run  so  fast 
without  one.  You  pay  the 
price  for  speed,  however, 
when  you  run  a  DOS  program 
or  shell  to  DOS.  Here  GEOS  is 
a  tortoise;  a  cache  will  dramat- 
ically improve  its  speed. 

So,  you  need  a  cache.  But 
which  one?  Windov/s  users 
get  the  latest  version  of 
SMARTDrive  free  (it  comes 
with  most  versions  of  MS- 
DOS,  too),  but  there  are  other 
programs  that  claim  to  be  bet- 
ter. This  month  I  looked  at  two; 
HyperDisk  (HyperWare, 
Route  Box  91,  Pall  Mall,  Ten- 
nesee  38577;  615-864-6868; 
$69,00)  and  Power  Cache 
P/us  (Intelligent  Devices,  112 
Harvard  Avenue,  Suite  295, 
Claremont,  California  91711; 
714-920-9551;  $99.95).  Both 
high-performance  programs 
work  with  Windows,  GEOS, 
and  DOS,  and  both  claim  to 
be  faster  than  SMARTDrive. 

HyperD/s/c  comes  with  spe- 


cial versions  for  conventional 
memory,  286  systems,  and 
386  systems.  As  with  most 
modern  caches,  it  can  cache 
in  conventional,  expanded,  or 
extended  memory,  but  if 
you're  running  Windows,  you'll 
almost  certainly  want  to  use  ex- 
tended memory. 

Power  Cache  Plus  comes  in 
two  versions;  PCPFASr  offers 
faster  performance,  and 
PCPSMALL  is  slower  but  opti- 
mized to  use  less  memory.  As 
with  HyperDisk,  it  can  cache 
in  conventional,  expanded,  or 
extended  memory. 

Power  Cache  Plus  has  one 
incompatibility  with  Windows: 
It  can't  coexist  with  a  perma- 
nent swap  file.  If  you  run  Win- 
dows in  386-enhanced  mode 
and  use  a  permanent  swap 
file,  you'll  take  a  performance 
hit  by  switching  to  a  temporary 
swap  file,  as  we'll  see. 

To  test  these  caches,  I  ran 
a  series  of  benchmarks  in  Win- 
dows, DOS,  and  GEOS  and 
found  some  surprising  results. 

For  the  Windows  \esl,  I  cre- 
ated a  macro  using  Pub- 
Tech's  BatchWorks  that  opens 
four  applications  along  with  typ- 
ical documents.  I  loaded 
Word  for  Windows  with  a  34K 
document,  Microsoft  Excel 
with  a  15K  spreadsheet.  Q-hE 
with  a  190K  database,  and 
Crosstalk.  After  each  was  load- 
ed, its  window  was  resized 
(with  BatchWorks),  and  then 
each  was  closed. 

I  ran  the  tests  on  a  Gateway 
25-MHz  386  with  4h/1B  of  RAM 
and  a  17-ms  110MB  hard 
drive.  I  set  each  cache  for 
1024K  using  extended  memo- 
ry. In  386-enhanced  mode, 
the  suite  of  Windows  pro- 
grams produced  the  following 
times; 

No  cache  2.08  minutes 

HyperDisk  1.03  minutes 

Power  Cache  Plus  1 .68  minutes 
SMARTDrive  1.13  minutes 

Both       HyperDisk      and 


SMARTDrive  were  able  to 
work  with  a  permanent  swap 
file  with  which  Power  Cache 
Plus  is  incompatible.  Because 
of  this,  its  time  suffered. 
When  I  tested  HyperDisk  and 
SMARTDrive  without  a  perma- 
nent swap  file,  their  times 
were  closer  to  that  of  Power 
Cache  Plus.  Next  I  tested  all 
three  caches  in  DOS,  using 
the  database  cache  test  sup- 
plied with  Power  Cache  Plus. 
Here,  the  results  were  amaz- 
ing. Power  Cache  Plus  aver- 
aged more  than  twice  as  fast 
as  HyperDisk,  and  in  reading 
and  writing  random  records,  it 
was  more  than  three  times  as 
fast.  SMARTDrive  and  Hyper- 
Disk were  neck  and  neck.  Av- 
erage times  were; 

No  cache  6.79  minutes 

HyperDisk  4.61  minutes 

Power  Cache  Plus  2.14  minutes 

SMARTDrive  4.69  minutes 

For  GEOS,  I  tested  each 
cache  with  a  variety  of  opera- 
tions; loading  GEOS  from 
DOS,  running  GeoDraw  and 
GeoWrite,  and  shelling  to 
DOS— one  of  GEOS's  slowest 
operations.  Since  GEOS  is 
less  disk-intensive  than  Win- 
dows, neither  cache  signifi- 
cantly improved  the  perform- 
ance of  GEOS  applications. 
But  the  time  it  took  to  shell  to 
DOS  and  return  was  more 
than  doubled  with  both  cach- 
es. Cache  times  for  these  op- 
erations were  almost  identical 
for  HyperDisk.  SMARTDrive. 
and  Power  Cache  Plus. 

What  does  all  this  mean?  If 
you're  using  lots  of  DOS  appli- 
cations and  you  don't  mind 
not  being  able  to  use  a  perma- 
nent swap  file  in  Windows, 
then  Power  Cache  Plus  is  the 
choice.  If  you're  not  into  DOS 
apps  in  a  big  way,  then  Hyper- 
Disk is  the  winner  by  a  hair. 
For  most  of  us,  SMARTDrive 
will  do  just  fine,  especially  if 
you  can  afford  to  give  it 
1024K  of  memory.  □ 


72       COMPUTE 


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INTRODOS 


Tony  Roberts 


Tirad  ol  that  same  old 
DOS  prompt?  Here's 
tiow  to  add  a  little  tile 
to  your  PC's  com- 
mand tine. 


A  PROMPT 
RESPONSE 

Over  the  years,  the  DOS 
prompt  has  taken  a  lot  of 
heat.  It's  been  called  cold,  un- 
friendly, and  a  lot  of  other 
names — many  unprintable. 
It's  not  hard,  though,  to  take 
the  edge  off  the  infamous 
prompt.  In  fact,  fooling  with 
the  DOS  prompt  has  provided 
many  an  evening  of  recreation 
for  computer  users. 

DOS  provides  the  PROMPT 
command  so  you  can  custom- 
ize the  prompt  to  your  liking. 
In  many  cases,  this  command 
is  either  ignored  or  placed  in 
the  AUTOEXEC.BAT  file  and 
forgotten.  A  common  example 
is  the  command  PROMPT 
$P$G,  which  is  found  on  most 
hard  disk  systems. 

Although  it  doesn't  look  like 
much,  the  above  command  in- 
structs the  computer  to  print 
the  current  directory  path  fol- 
lowed by  a  greater  than  sign. 
It  might  come  out  looking  some- 
thing like  C:\  DOS\  UTILITIES>. 

But  how  did  the  cryptic  com- 
mand PROMPT  $P$G  turn  in- 
to something  helpful  and  use- 
ful? The  answer  is  meta- 
strings.  Metastrings  are 
groups  of  characters  (strings) 
that  the  program  changes  in- 
to something  else.  In  the  case 
of  the  PROMPT  command,  (he 
dollar  sign  is  a  signal  that  tells 
the  program  to  apply  a  special 
interpretation  to  whatever  char- 
acter follows. 

The  metastring  SP  is  trans- 
formed into  the  current  path, 
and  $G  is  transformed  into  the 
greater  than  character.  Your 
DOS  manual  includes  a  table 
that  lists  the  PROMPT  meta- 
strings. Among  them  are 
codes  to  display  the  current 
time  or  date,  as  well  as  char- 
acters to  move  the  cursor  to 
the  next  line  or  to  erase  the  pre- 
vious character. 

If  you  use  a  program  such 
as  a  word  processor  or  spread- 


sheet that  allows  you  to  shell 
to  DOS,  you've  probably  had 
the  experience  of  forgetting 
that  your  application  program 
was  running,  and  you've  tried 
to  run  it  again. 

To  remedy  this  problem, 
start  the  application  via  a 
batch  file  that  uses  the 
PROMPT  command  to  remind 
you  that  you  should  exit  back 
to  your  application.  Here's  how 
I  do  it  for  Borland's  Quattro  Pro: 

©echo  off 

PROMPT  Spreadsheet  program  ac- 
tive. Type  EXIT  to  return.$_$P$G 
cd  \QPRO 

q 

ci\ 

PROIVIPT  SP$G 

The  metastring  $_  is  translat- 
ed into  a  carriage  return-line- 
feed, so  this  prompt  ends  up 
being  displayed  on  two  lines. 
At  the  end  of  the  batch  file, 
the  prompt  is  restored  to  its 
normal  state. 

Some  users  like  to  create 
elaborate  prompts  using 
some  of  the  graphics  charac- 
ters that  are  available  in  the  up- 
per half  of  the  ASCII  set.  To 
use  these  characters,  first 
look  them  up  in  an  ASCII 
chart  so  you'll  know  the  ASCII 
number  of  each  character 
you  want  to  use. 

Then,  to  include  the  charac- 
ter in  your  prompt  command, 
hold  down  the  Alt  key  and 
punch  in  the  ASCII  code  on 
the  numeric  keypad.  When 
you  release  the  Alt  key,  the 
character  will  appear  on- 
screen. 

If  creating  the  perfect 
prompt  has  caught  your  fan- 
cy, you'll  want  to  take  the 
next  step  and  include  some 
ANSI  escape  sequences  in 
your  prompt,  allowing  you  to 
add  color  to  your  creation. 

To  do  this,  you'll  need  to 
have  the  ANSI  .SYS  device  driv- 
er or  an  equivalent  (NAN- 
SI. SYS,  GANSI.SYS,  or  TAN- 
SI, SYS)  installed  on  your  sys- 


tem. If  it's  not  installed,  you 
can  add  the  line  DE- 
V1CE=ANSI.SYS  to  your  CON- 
FIG.SYS file.  If  the  ANSI.SYS 
file  is  in  a  directory  other  than 
the  root  directory,  be  sure  to 
include  the  complete  path  to 
it  in  the  DEVICE  statement. 

With  ANSI.SYS  installed, 
you  can  make  your  prompts  in- 
clude boldface,  flashing,  or  re- 
verse type,  and  you  can  se- 
lect foreground  and  back- 
ground colors  as  well. 

ANSI  commands  involve  the 
use  of  another  set  of  meta- 
strings called  escape  sequenc- 
es. These  sequences  combine 
an  escape  character  (ASCII 
27),  a  left  bracket  ([),  an  op- 
tional parameter,  and  a  one- 
letter  command  code. 

This  gets  pretty  involved, 
and  there  isn't  room  here  to 
list  all  the  codes  and  parame- 
ters for  colors  and  video 
modes,  so  I'll  provide  an  exam- 
ple to  get  you  started. 

Let's  take  the  usual  $P$G 
prompt  and  spice  it  up  by  dis- 
playing the  prompt  itself  in  re- 
verse video. 

PROMPT  $E[7M$P$G$E[M 

Notice  the  metastring  $E  in 
the  command  above.  This  is 
the  PROMPT  command's  way 
of  sending  the  escape  charac- 
ter. When  ANSI.SYS  detects 
the  escape  character  fol- 
lowed by  a  left  bracket  char- 
acter, it  knows  that  it  should  in- 
terpret the  characters  that  fol- 
low. The  code  7M  is  the  ANSI 
code  for  reverse  mode.  AN- 
SI.SYS switches  the  display 
to  reverse  mode,  and  then 
the  PROMPT  metastrings 
SPSG  are  expanded  and  print- 
ed. Finally,  another  escape  se- 
quence changes  the  video 
back  to  normal  mode. 

As  I  said,  you  can  have  a 
lot  of  fun  playing  with 
prompts.  Send  me  your  best 
creation  in  care  of  COM- 
PUTE, and  I'll  print  a  selection 
in  a  future  column.  □ 


74        COIVIPUTE 


"IcantMevBttfenotUNIX." 


Take  it  from  the  critics,  Coherent 
is  so  dose  to  UMX,  you  won't 
believe  your  eyes.  Or  the  price. 
"Mark  WMams  Co.  seems 
to  have  mastered  the  art 
ofiRitsion;  Coherent  comes 
so  fully  qualified  as  a  UNIX 
clone,  you  find  yourself  thinking 
'I  can't  believe  it's  not  UNIX.'" 

-Sean  Fulton,  UNIX  Today!, 
November  26, 1990 

". ..(Coherent)  may  be  the  best  thing 

that  has  happened  to  UNIX  yet." 

-William  Zachmann,  PC  Week, 
November  5, 1990 

"If  you  want  to  come  as  close  as  you 
can  to  real  UNIX  for  a  low  price, 
COHERENT  can't  be  beat." 

-Warren  Keuffel,  Computer  Language 
Magazine,  November  1990 

'7/yo«  want  a  UNIX-like  develop- 
ment and  learning  system  for  less 
than  $100...!  don't  see  how  you  can 

go  wrong  with  Coherent!' 

-David  Fiedler,  BYTE  Magazine, 
November  1990 

OVER  25,000  USERS, 
AND  MORE  EVERY  DAY! 
Why  is  Coherent  now  the 
world's  best-selling  UNIX  clone? 


-Sean  Fulton,  UNIX  Today! 


MWC 

SCO 

COHERENT 

XENIX  286 

Vcnmn  3.2 

Version  23.2. 

No.  of  Manuals 

1 

8 

No.  of  Disks 

5 

21 

Keme!  Size 

64K 

198K 

InstallTlme 

20-30  min. 

3-4  hours 

Suggislcd  Disk  Space 

10  meg 

30  meg 

Min.  Memoiy  Requirw 

640K 

1-2  meg 

Pcrfomiance' 

38.7  sec 

100.3  sec 

Price 

$99.95 

tl  495,00 

*Byte  Excel  benchmark,  1000  ilerations  on  20  MHZ  386. 
Hardwan:  frKjUiremenli;  1.2  mtgSV'i'  or  1.4  meg  JVi'  floppy,  and  hard 
disk.  Docs  nol  run  on  MicrcKhannel  machines. 


NEW  RELEASE  3.2 

«99.95' 

Because  like  the  original  UNIX, 
Coherent  is  a  powerful,  multi-user, 
multi-tasking  development  system 
with  a  complete  UNIX-compatible 
kernel  and  C  compiler. 

Features  include  Lex  and  Yacc, 
a  vi  editor,  SCSI  support  and  UUCP 
capabilities. 

And  Coherent  comes  with  a  hill 
set  of  over  200  UNIX  commands 
including  text  processing,  program 
development,  administrative  and 
maintenance  functions.  All  of  it  fully 
documented  in  our  highly  acclaimed 
1200  page  manual. 
WHAT  UNIX  WAS  MEANT  TO  BE. 

Unlike  current  versions  of 
UNIX,  Coherent  is  lean  and  efficient. 
Small  and  beautifully  powerful,  the 
way  UNIX  was  originally  designed. 

Coherent  runs  on  affordable 
286  as  well  as  386  and  486  based 
IBM-PCs  and  compatibles  with 
space  to  spare.  Enough  space  to  keep 
DOS  co-residing  on  your  hard  disk. 

And  it's  so  fast  to  install,  so  fast 
to  learn  and  just  so  fast,  Coherent 
leaves  UNIX  in  the  dust. 


HARD  TO  BELIEVE? 
IT  KEEPS  GETTING  BETTER. 
Coherent  gives  you  more 
value  from  the  start  and  keeps  on 
giving.Likeregularupdateswithnew 
and  enhanced  features.  Our  write-your- 
own  device  driver  kit  and  COHware, 
contributed  software  on  diskette. 

There's  also  on-going  free  tech- 
nical support  via  telephone.  An 
active  user  network  and  a  UUCP 
Bulletin  Board  System.  Plus,  with 
our  new  3.2  release: 

•  A  new  Kom  shell  with  sophisti- 
cated command-line  editing. 

•  Postscript  and  PCL  support  for 
troff  adding  access  to  hundreds  of 
new  fonts. 

•  Improved  UUCP  support. 

•  International  keyboard  and 
character  set  support. 

TAKE  60  DAYS  TO 
CONVINCE  YQURSELE 
Will  you  agree  with  the  critics 
and  Coherent's  25,000-plus  users? 
Try  it.  And  if  you  don't  think 
Coherent  is  everything  you  ever 
wanted  in  UMX,  we'll  refund  your 
money  No  problem.  No  hassle. 

You  can't  go  wrong.  So  get  to 
a  phone,  FAX  or  mailbox  now  and 
order  Coherent  today  At  $99.95, 
it's  unbelievable. 

1-800-MARKWMS 

a-800-627-5967  or  1-708-291-6700} 

FAX:  1-708-291-6750 
60-DAY  MONEY  BACK  GUARANTEE! 


Mark  Williams 
Company 

60  Revere  Drive 
Northbrook,  IL  60062 

*Ffu  sbipnitg  and  fuadltng.  Qihecnit  K  a  Indetnjrk  r4  MiA 
WUums  Contiuiy.  UM1X  k  a  tnitenurk  of  AT&T.  XENIX  is  > 
tnctcmaik  oi  Micmsoh. 


HARDWARE  CLINIC 


Mark  Minasi 


Which 

computer  bus 

Is  best 

for  you— ISA, 

MCA, 

or  EISA? 


DON'T  CATCH 
THE  WRONG  BUS 

In  the  past  four  years,  there's 
been  plenty  of  smoke  (and  mir- 
rors) about  computer  buses.  If 
you're  like  most  people,  you've 
heard  of  IBM's  Micro  Channel, 
and  you  may  know  of  the  clone- 
meisters'  response,  EISA. 
They're  supposed  to  be  better 
somehow — aren't  they? 

Here's  the  straight  and  skin- 
ny on  what  these  new  buses 
offer  and  why  you  should 
care.  In  the  process,  I'll  ex- 
plain a  whole  bunch  of  things, 
including  the  horrifying  DMA 
Speed  Scandal. 

First  things  first:  What's  a 
bus?  Basically,  a  bus  is  the  set 
of  connectors — the  slots — on 
your  motherboard.  It's  the 
point  from  which  your  system 
can  be  expanded. 

Fortunately,  the  buses  in 
the  PC  are  well  documented. 
That  means  that  anyone  can 
design  and  sell  an  add-in  cir- 
cuit card,  and  that's  got  a  lot 
to  do  with  why  the  PC  is  so  pop- 
ular in  the  first  place.  The  en- 
tirely open  nature  of  the  PC — 
its  bus  slots,  its  third-party  oper- 
ating system  (you  had  a 
choice  of  buying  DOS,  CP/M, 
or  the  p-System  from  IBM  in 
1981) — and  its  fully  document- 
ed BIOS  are  the  reasons  why 
the  PC  is  the  market  leader. 

Ticket  to  Ride 

The  original  PC  had  the  bus 
that's  still  found  on  XT 
clones.  If  you  count  all  the  met- 
al fingers  in  a  PC  bus  slot, 
you'll  find  62— and  each  of 
the  62  wires  has  a  specific 
job.  Some  transmit  data, 
while  some  communicate  ad- 
dress information.  Some 
warn  the  CPU  of  upcoming  ac- 
tivity or  ask  the  CPU  to  yield 
control  of  the  PC,  as  when 
one  circuit  board  talks  direct- 
ly to  another  (that's  called 
DMA  or  bus  mastering,  and 
I'll  discuss  it  soon). 


On  the  original  PC,  8  of  the 
62  wires  transferred  data. 
That's  why  the  PC  bus  is 
called  an  8-bit  bus.  The  ad- 
vent of  the  AT  in  1984  saw  a 
modification  of  the  PC  bus  to 
double  the  width  of  the  dala 
path,  leading  to  the  so-called 
AT  bus.  This  bus  has  a  16-bit 
data  path,  allowing  it  to  trans- 
fer 16  bits  in  the  time  that  the 
PC  bus  would  take  to  transmit 
8  bits.  Data  paths  on  comput- 
er buses  are  like  lanes  on  high- 
ways; the  more  lanes  you 
have,  the  more  that  can  be 
transported  (bits  on  buses, 
cars  on  highways).  The  AT 
bus  became  the  standard  for 
most  clones  and  has  been  re- 
dubbed  the  Industry  Stan- 
dard Architecture,  or  /S/\  (pro- 
nounced ice-ah). 

ISA  has  served  us  well  to 
date,  but  it's  limited  in  sever- 
al ways.  First,  the  16-bit  data 
path  was  nice  in  1984,  but  it's 
less  than  optimal  for  386DX 
and  486  computers.  Both  of 
those  chips  have  the  potential 
to  do  32-bit  data  transfers,  so 
a  32-bit  bus  would  create  a 
market  for  add-in  boards  that 
could  more  fully  exploit  the 
full  power  of  those  chips.  'Vir- 
tually all  ISA  machines  run 
the  bus  slots  at  a  mere  8 
MHz.  so  even  the  fastest  ISA 
machines  must  slow  down  to 
8  MHz  whenever  communicat- 
ing with  an  expansion  board. 
Second,  ISA  uses  edge-trig- 
gered interrupts.  The  alterna- 
tive would  be  level-triggered  in- 
terrupts. Edge-triggered  inter- 
rupts are  more  noise-prone 
and  so  restrict  how  fast  a 
PC's  CPU  can  communicate 
with  its  expansion  boards. 

The  DMA  Scandal 

IBM  decided  to  scrap  ISA  al- 
together with  its  post-1 987  PS/ 
2  line  of  computers.  The  PS/ 
2s  use  an  entirely  new  bus 
called  Micro  Channel  Architec- 
ture (MCA). 

Working  from  a  clean 
slate,  IBM  was  free  to  add 


some  nifty  features  to  MCA. 
First,  there's  a  32-bit  version 
of  MCA  as  well  as  a  16-bit  ver- 
sion, allowing  greater  speed 
in  386DX  and  486  PS/2s  than 
would  be  possible  if  they 
were  ISA  machines.  Unfortu- 
nately, it's  not  much  faster — 
the  maximum  clock  rate  for 
MCA  slots  is  only  10  MHz.  It  al- 
so uses  the  cleaner  level-trig- 
gered interrupts. 

But  it  doesn't  stop  there. 
DMA  is  faster  under  MCA 
than  under  ISA,  and  MCA  of- 
fers bus  mastering.  DMA  is 
short  for  Direct  Memory  Ac- 
cess, an  interface  method 
that  allows  peripheral  devices 
(such  as  disk  controllers  or 
LAN  boards)  to  transfer  data 
to  and  from  memory  without 
having  to  first  pass  the  data 
through  the  CPU. 

Why's  that  good?  Consider 
what  happens  when  you  ask 
your  floppy  disk  to  read  a  file. 
The  CPU  tells  a  board  called 
the  floppy  disl<  controller  to 
read  a  block  of  data  from  the 
floppy;  that  block  is  512 
bytes  long.  Once  the  data 
has  been  read  by  the  floppy 
controller,  that  512  bytes 
must  be  moved  into  memory 
so  that  the  floppy  controller 
can  get  ready  to  read  (or 
write)  more  data  to  (or  from) 
the  floppy.  How  does  it  get 
moved?  The  basic  way  is  for 
the  CPU  to  take  each  byte 
from  the  controller  (one  at  a 
time),  figure  out  where  in  mem- 
ory to  put  that  byte,  and  go 
on  to  the  next  byte.  The 
buzzword  for  this  kind  of  trans- 
fer is  PIO.  or  Programmed  In- 
put/Output. PlO's  fine,  except 
for  the  fact  that  it's  slow, 

Enter  DMA.  With  DMA,  we 
eliminate  the  middleman.  The 
floppy  disk  controller  is  tempo- 
rarily empowered  to  talk  direct- 
ly to  the  CPU's  memory — 
hence  the  name  Direct  Mem- 
ory Access.  DMA  is  solely  in- 
tended for  speed. 

Which  brings  us  to  what  I 
call  the  DMA  Scandal.  For  pur- 


76        COMPUTE 


start  getting  the  absolute  most  from  your  PC  and  COMPUTE! 
Subscribe  to  COMPUTE'S  PC  Disk  today! 

Every  otiier  montli— six  times  a  year— you'll  receive  COMPUTE'S  PC  Disk  chock- 
full  of  ready-to-run  programs,  including  the  very  best  dazzling  applications, 
powerful  utilities,  and  eye-popping  graphics.  And  each  disk  contains  special  pro- 
grams that  tie  in  with  the  Tech  Support  section  of  the  magazine. 
You'll  get  a  direct  connection  to  commercial-quality,  free  programs  and  the  very 
best  in  shareware,  all  painstakingly  debugged  and  fine-tuned  by  our  experts. 

Here's  a  list  of  the  must-have  programs  coming  on  the  October  PC  Disk. 

n  Big  Desk — Make  your  Windows  desktop  eight  times  larger! 

□  Directory  Size — Help  for  an  ovenweight  hard  disk. 

□  Useful  Notes — Kiss  that  paper  notepad  good-bye! 
n  VIRUSCAN— Protect  your  PC  from  viruses. 

□  Mr.  Filter— Salvage  damaged  text  files. 


Ml  mm^ 


And  that's  not  all.  To  make  PC  Disk  as  easy 
possible,  each  issue  contains  CMOS— COMPUTE'. 
Operating  System — a  special  menuing  program 
allows  you  to  fly  through  installation,  run  programs, 
view  and  print  documentation,  get  special 
tips  on  program  requirements,  and  more. 

So  don't  delay!  Subscribe  now! 
Super  programs  and  our  special 
menu  can  be  yours. 

All  ofdets  must  be  paid  in  U  S.  funds  by  check  drawn  on  a 

U.S.  bank  or  by  money  order.  MasterCard  or  VISA  accepted 

tor  orders  ovsr  S20.00,  This  Oder  will  only  be  filled  at  tbe 

above  address  snri  is  not  made  in  conjunction  Willi 

any  other  magaiine  or  d^k-subscriplior:  offer.  ^ 

Please  allow  4-6  vreeks  fof  delivery  of  single  ^ 

issues  or  for  subscnptiwt  to  begin.  Sorry,  but  ^ 

telephone  orilers  cannot  be  accepted.  -^ 

Disks  avalable  only  lor  IBM  PC 

and  compatible  oimputers. 

Current  subscribers  to  COMPUTl 

or  COMPUTE'S  PC  Magaiine 

will  have  their  subscnp-  -4 

tons  extended  arxordingly        ,;,'^ 


Menu 


HARDWARE  CLINIC 


poses  of  toial  backward  com- 
patibility, IBM  ran  the  DMA  on 
its  8-MHz  AT  at  4.77  MHz— 
the  speed  of  the  PC!  Follow- 
ing IBM's  lead,  the  makers  of 
virtually  all  ISA  machines  to 
this  day  run  their  DMAs  at 
4.77  MHz.  That  means  that 
when  your  33-MHz  ISA  386  is 
doing  DMA,  it  slows  down  to 
the  speed  of  the  original  IBM 
PC.  A  few  no-name  doners 
run  DMA  at  10  MHz,  but 
they're  few  and  far  between. 
Incredible,  ain't  it? 

Micro  Channel  improves  on 
ISA  by  running  DMA  at  half 
the  processor  speed,  so  a  10- 
MHz  PS/2  runs  DMA  at  5 
MHz — basically  the  same  as 
an  ISA  machine,  but  a  20- 
MHz  PS/2  runs  DMA  at  a 
more  acceptable  10  MHz. 

Switch  Flipping 

Perhaps  the  nicest  feature  of 
MCA  is  Programmable  Option 
Select  (PCS).  Anyone  who's 
ever  had  to  flip  switches  and 
move  jumpers  on  an  expan- 
sion board  will  appreciate 
this  feature.  When  installing 
an  expansion  board,  you  of- 
ten have  to  configure  the 
board.  For  example,  when  in- 
stalling an  internal  modem, 
you  must  set  it  as  either 
C0M1  or  COM2.  You  set  it  by 
moving  a  jumper  or  flipping  a 
DIP  switch.  That's  annoying 
because  it  means  that  every 
time  you  want  to  reconfigure 
a  board,  you've  got  to  pop 
the  top  on  your  computer,  re- 
move the  circuit  board,  make 
the  change,  and  replace  it. 
MCA  {and  EISA,  for  that  mat- 
ter) allow  all  of  these  choices 
to  be  made  with  software — a 
real  timesaver. 

Even  better,  an  expansion 
board  whose  configuration  is 
software  adjustable  means  au- 
tomatic configuration.  Rather 
than  your  setting  the  modem 
to  COM2  because  you  have  a 
mouse  on  C0M1,  why  not 
just  let  the  MCA  configuration 
software  sense  the  conflict 

78        COMPUTE 


and  resolve  it  automatically? 
That's  just  what  the  PS/2  Ref- 
erence Disk  does  (or  tries  to 
do,  but  that's  for  another  col- 
umn). EISA,  again,  shares 
this  capability. 

The  Empire  Strikes  Bock 

Nice  as  these  MCA  features 
are,  they  come  at  a  terrible 
price:  ISA-compatible  boards 
don't  work  in  MCA  machines, 
and  MCA  boards  don't  work 
in  ISA  machines.  Further,  IBM 
wrapped  up  MCA  in  enough 
legal  red  tape  that  it  became 
quite  unattractive  for  third-par- 
ty PC  vendors  to  clone  the 
new  bus.  To  legally  offer  an 
MCA  clone,  vendors  must 
pay  IBM  a  royalty  equal  to  5 
percent  of  their  gross  sales 
on  the  machines,  Five  per- 
cent is  usually  the  total  profit 
for  most  makers  of  compati- 
bles— as  Big  Blue  well 
knows. 

So  Compaq  and  a  number 
of  other  vendors  (Wyse,  AST, 
Tandy,  Hewlett-Packard,  Ze- 
nith, Olivetti,  NEC,  and  Ep- 
son—the initials  spell 
watchzone  when  you  include 
Compaq)  designed  an  alterna- 
tive bus  with  features  similar 
to  MCA's:  software-setup  bus 
mastering,  faster  DMA,  and 
32-bit  width.  They  call  it  EISA 
(pronounced  ease-ah),  for  Ex- 
tended Industry  Standard  Ar- 
chitecture. 

Then  they  went  IBM  a  hair 
better.  They  designed  EISA  to 
be  backward  compatible  with 
ISA.  Every  EISA  slot  has  a  dou- 
ble-decker connector.  The 
top  part  is  the  ISA  circuitry, 
and  the  bottom  part  has  the  EI- 
SA lines.  Only  EISA  boards 
have  connectors  that  can  ex- 
tend down  to  the  EISA  part.  (I 
wonder  if  that's  where  the  Ex- 
tended in  Extended  Industry 
Standard  Architecture  came 
from.) 

EISA  has  a  few  other  leads 
on  MCA.  An  EISA  machine 
can  have  up  to  16  slots; 
MCA,  8.  EISA  can  allow  an  ex- 


isting ISA  board  to  run  its 
DMA  at  twice  normal  speed 
with  no  hardware  changes  to 
the  ISA  board  (there  must  be 
some  new  software,  howev- 
er). The  speed  of  EISA  itself 
is,  unfortunately,  stuck  at  8 
MHz. 

The  EISA  specification  al- 
lows boards  to  be  physically 
larger  and  draw  more  power 
than  MCA.  That's  important  be- 
cause it  means  that  EISA 
boards  are  cheaper  and  easi- 
er to  design,  and  so  presum- 
ably will  cost  less. 

All  Aboard 

So  what's  the  right  bus  for 
you?  Well,  the  vast  majority  of 
the  boards  out  there  are  ISA 
compatible,  despite  the  fact 
that  the  PS/2  has  been 
around  for  four  years.  EISA 
boards  are  as  scarce  as 
hen's  teeth,  so  even  if  you  did 
buy  an  EISA  machine,  you'd 
have  to  wait  for  boards  that  ex- 
ploit EISA's  capabilities. 

Further,  90  percent  of  the 
expansion  boards  wouldn't 
benefit  from  the  improved 
throughput  of  MCA  or  EISA- 
talking  to  my  printer  or  9600- 
bps  modem  at  8  MHz  Is  hard- 
ly what  I'd  call  useful.  The 
boards  that  really  would  ben- 
efit from  better  throughput  are 
VGA  boards,  hard  disk  control- 
lers, and  LAN  cards.  EISA 
and  MCA  versions  of  these 
are  appearing,  but  slowly. 

So  buying  an  ISA  machine 
today  still  isn't  a  bad  idea,  par- 
ticularly when  you  consider 
the  cost. 

On  the  other  hand,  an  EI- 
SA machine  has  ISA  compati- 
bility. And  when  the  EISA 
boards  do  appear,  you'll  be 
ready.  And  just  to  make 
things  complicated,  one  ven- 
dor even  sells  a  reasonably 
priced  EISA  machine — the 
ALR  Business  VEISA.  It  won't 
be  the  only  low-price  EISA  sell- 
er for  long. 

Heck,  maybe  it  is  time  to  up- 
grade ...  O 


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ISENO  TO:  DAMARK  INTERNATIONAL,  INC.,  7101  Winnetka  Ave.  N„  P.O,  Box  29900,  MpIs,,  MN  55429-0900  Copynghl  1991  DAMARK  INTERNATIONAL,  INC.  All  rights  reserved,  | 


DISK  UPDATE 


Richard  C.  Leinecker 


If  you've 

had  problems  wttn 

SuperMAC, 

yoit  may  not  be 

formaning 

your  files  correctly. 

Here's  helo. 


END  MACROS 
THE  RIGHT  WAY 

We've  streamlined  COM- 
PUTE'S Menu  Operating  Sys- 
tem to  make  it  simpler  to  use. 
In  the  past,  we've  offered  thie 
option  of  running  some  of  the 
programs  directly  from  the 
menu.  The  menu  program  de- 
compresses the  files  {or  loads 
them  straight  off  the  disk  if  it's 
a3'/2-inch  disk)  and  then  exe- 
cutes the  code.  IvIS-DOS  has 
some  inherent  problems,  how- 
ever, thai  make  this  impracti- 
cal in  most  cases,  so  we've  de- 
cided to  eliminate  this  fea- 
ture— al  least  for  now. 

If  you  try  to  run  memory-res- 
ident programs,  such  as 
SCROLOCK  from  the  April 
1991  disk,  your  computer  will 
crash  after  quitting  the  menu 
program.  That's  because  the 
system  can't  keep  track  of 
where  everything  is  in  memo- 
ry after  the  menu  program  is 
terminated. 

Some  programs  may  look 
for  a  configuration  file  or  other 
files  they  need  to  run.  That's 
the  case  with  ASIC  from  the 
February  disk.  It  attempts  to 
run  but  aborts  because  it  can't 
find  its  support  files. 

There's  one  last  problem  re- 
lated to  running  programs 
from  the  menu  program.  We 
used  to  use  a  file  called 
LAUNCH.EXE  to  help  us  run 
programs  from  the  menu,  If 
you  typed  LAUNCH  from  the 
command  line,  though,  it  tried 
to  execute  code  that  didn't  ex- 
ist. You  won't  find  it  on  disk 
from  this  point  on,  but  if  you 
see  it  on  old  disks,  don't  run  it. 
If  you  do,  your  computer  will 
probably  lock  up,  and  you'll 
have  to  reboot. 

Ending  Macros  Gracefully 

SuperMAC  {AptW  1991)  loads 
a  macro  file  that  you  create 
with  your  text  editor  or  word 
processor.  When  the  program 
runs,  it  loads  the  file  and  con- 


verts it  to  a  format  that  its  in- 
ternal routines  understand. 
The  conversion  routines  are 
designed  to  alert  you  to  any 
problems  in  the  macro  file.  If 
problems  are  found,  the  pro- 
gram quits  with  an  error  mes- 
sage. We've  gotten  calls  from 
several  people  who've  re- 
ceived these  error  messages, 
and  we  have  some  sugges- 
tions for  avoiding  them. 

The  most  common  prob- 
lem is  leaving  off  the  carriage 
return  at  the  end  of  the  last 
macro.  Your  text  editor  will 
place  a  carriage  return  at  the 
end  if  you  press  Enter.  You 
can  even  add  extra  blank 
lines  at  the  end  of  the  file  to 
make  sure  that  at  least  one  is 
there. 

A  second  problem  can  oc- 
cur when  your  editor  places 
non-ASCII  characters  in  the 
file.  You  have  to  make  sure 
that  your  word  processor 
saves  the  file  as  straight  AS- 
CII text  Make  sure,  too,  that 
your  editor  saves  the  file  with 
hard  carriage  returns  and  not 
just  linefeeds. 

If  you're  still  having  trouble, 
you  might  have  to  resort  to 
more  thorough  measures, 
fvlake  sure  that  the  DOS  pro- 
gram called  DEBUG  is  in 
your  path  or  in  the  current  di- 
rectory. At  the  DOS  prompt, 
type  DEBUG  filename.MAC 
and  press  Enter.  You'll  see  a 
prompt  that  looks  like  a  dash. 
Press  D  and  then  Enter.  DE- 
BUG will  show  you  the  first  sev- 
eral lines  of  the  text  file  as 
hex  data.  Disregard  the  num- 
bers in  the  left  column;  what 
you're  looking  for  is  to  the 
hght. 

When  your  editor  inserts  a 
carriage  return,  it's  actually  in- 
serting two  characters — a  13 
and  then  a  10.  You'll  see 
these  in  the  DEBUG  dump  as 
a  consecutive  OD  OA  pair  If 
you  don't  see  several  of 
these  pairs,  your  editor  isn't 
saving  in  the  proper  format.  If 
you  don't  see  one  of  these 


pairs  after  the  last  macro,  you 
haven't  ended  with  a  carriage 
return. 

There's  one  more  thing  you 
can  look  for  in  the  hex  dump, 
Any  character  that's  less  than 
20  hex  or  greater  than  7F  hex 
doesn't  belong  in  there.  If  you 
see  characters  in  these  rang- 
es, then  your  editor  has  insert- 
ed its  own  special  formatting 
characters,  and  SuperMAC  is 
reporting  an  error  when  it 
runs  into  these. 

Getting  the  Best  Support 

If  you  call  COfvlPUTE's  office 
for  technical  support,  you'll 
want  to  be  prepared  so  you 
can  get  the  best  possible  re- 
sponse. Here  are  some  sug- 
gestions that  will  help  our  tech- 
nical staff  solve  your  prob- 
lems. 

Be  ready  to  list  your  com- 
puter's equipment.  Ivlany  pro- 
grams require  certain  equip- 
ment configurations  to  oper- 
ate properly.  These  programs 
may  also  need  you  to  config- 
ure the  program  for  the  equip- 
ment on  which  it's  running. 

It's  especially  important  to 
know  your  graphics  configura- 
tion for  programs  that  run  in 
graphics  modes  and  your 
disk  drive  types  for  programs 
that  are  disk  utilities  or  that  ac- 
cess the  drives  often.  Being 
able  to  accurately  identify 
your  system  and  its  compo- 
nents will  help  give  the  tech- 
nical support  person  the  infor- 
mation needed  to  identify 
your  problem. 

Know  the  version  of  DOS  un- 
der which  your  computer 
runs.  You  can  get  this  by  typ- 
ing VER  at  the  DOS  prompt. 

Although  not  always  possi- 
ble, the  most  important  factor 
is  to  be  right  at  your  comput- 
er when  you  call  so  the  tech- 
nical representative  can  taik 
you  through  any  problems 
while  you're  on  the  telephone. 
That  may  save  you  from  hav- 
ing to  call  again  because 
something  wasn't  clear.       n 


80        COMPUTE 


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Af!e_ 


j  City  Suiie  . 
I   I'lione  < 


.  Apt. 


.  Zip  . 


HOME  OFFICE 


COMPUTE  CHOICE.  Double  the 
storage  capacity  of  your  hard  drive 
without  spending  a  bundle. 

Clifton  Karnes 


STACKER 


Face  it:  Your  hard  disk  is  too 
small.  If  you  have  a  40MB 
drive,  you  need  a  60.  If  you're 
spinning  a  60,  you'd  be  better 
off  with  an  80.  And  on  and  on, 
ad  infinitum. 

As  a  case  in  point,  I  recent- 
ly acquired  a  new  computer 
with  a  60MB  drive,  but  before 
a  month  was  out,  I  was  spend- 
ing every  free  moment  trying 
to  decide  what  to  kick  off  the 
disk  to  make  room  for  some- 
thing else.  This  is  no  way  to 
live,  I  told  myself. 

Until  recently,  a  larger  hard 
disk  was  the  only  way  to  gar- 
ner more  magnetic  real  estate. 
But  Stacker,  a  hardware-soft- 
ware combo  from  Stac  Elec- 
tronics, changes  all  that.  With 
it,  you  can  literally  double  the 
capacity  of  your  hard  disk  with- 
out paying  a  performance  pen- 
alty. How  is  this  possible?  In  a 
word,  compression. 

Stacker  is  a  device  driver 
with  an  optional  coprocessor 
board  that  stores  data  on  your 
hard  disk  in  a  compressed 
form.  When  you  want  to  write 
something  to  disk,  Stacker 
compresses  the  data  before 
it's  written.  When  you  need  to 
access  the  data  again,  Stack- 
er decompresses  the  informa- 
tion and  sends  it  to  you. 

Compression  may  sound 
complicated  and  dangerous, 
but  Stacker  works  flawlessly 
and  nearly  transparently.  In 
fact,  if  you're  using  an  RLL  con- 
troller (and  almost  everyone 
with  a  40MB  or  larger  drive  is), 
your  data  is  being  com- 
pressed at  the  bit  level  al- 
ready. Mainframes  have  been 
using  RLL  compression  tech- 
nology for  years  with  no  ill  ef- 
fects. So  compression  is  OK 
as  long  as  it  is  100-percent  re- 
liable, and  Stacker  is. 

Installing  Stacker  isn't  diffi- 


cult, but 
the  more 
you  know 
about  your 
PC,  the  easier  it 
will  be.  As  I  men- 
tioned earlier,  Stack- 
er comes  in  two  ver- 
sions. One  version  uses 
a  software  driver  coupled 
with  a  coprocessor  board. 
The  other  version  uses  a  soft- 
ware driver  alone.  The 
coprocessor  board  offers  fast- 
er performance  and  much  bet- 
ter compression,  so  it's  the- 
choice  if  you  have  a  machine 
with  an  open  slot.  The 
coprocessor  version  also  uses 
less  conventional  memory — 
21 K  RAM  as  opposed  to  30K 
for  the  software- only  Stacker 

To  install  the  coprocessor 
version,  you  place  the  board 
in  any  available  slot  and  run  In- 
stall. For  the  software  version, 
you  simply  run  Install.  The  in- 
stallation program  creates  a 
Stacker  volume  on  your  cur- 
rent hard  disk  that  will  hold 
your  compressed  files.  For  ex- 
ample, if  you  have  one  hard 
disk  labeled  drive  C,  Stacker 
will  create  a  drive  D  to  store  its 
compressed  files.  Your  sys- 
tem will  see  drive  D  as  anoth- 
er hard  disk,  but  in  reality, 
drive  D  is  a  single  large  file  on 
your  C  drive. 

Getting  back  to  the  installa- 
tion, the  first  thing  the  setup  pro- 
gram asks  you  for  is  a  base  ad- 
dress in  upper  memory  to  use 


for  your  co- 
processor card, 
The  program  sup- 
plies a  default  (CCOO), 
which  should  work  in  most 
cases.  Next,  the  program  asks 
you  for  a  size  to  use  for  Stack- 
er's disk  cache.  If  you  want  to 
use  your  own  cache,  you  can 
specify  a  size  of  0.  Next,  Stack- 
er asks  how  much  space  you 
want  to  dedicate  to  your  new 
SfacAer  volume.  After  that,  you 
can  exercise  the  option  to 
have  the  program  transfer  all 
the  files  on  your  current  disk  to 
the  Sfac/<er  disk,  compressing 
them  in  the  process.  By  de- 
fault, Sfac/cer  leaves  1MB  of 
disk  space  on  the  non-Stack- 
er volume.  You  can  specify 
more  if  you  choose. 

On  a  60MB  disk,  Stacker 
took  about  25  minutes  to  com- 
press 50MB  of  files,  When  the 
installation  was  finished,  I  had 
a  120MB  hard  disk  with  about 
70MB  free.  Not  bad. 

If  you're  running  Microsoft 
Windows,  Stacker  will  work 
without  a  hitch,  but  you  do 
need  to  go  through  a  few  ex- 
tra steps  to  install  it  correctly. 
First,  if  you're  using  a  perma- 
nent swap  file,  you'll  need  to 


82        COMPUTE 


delete  it  before  you  run  the  in- 
stallation program.  Then, 
when  you're  asked  how  much 
space  to  leave  on  your  non- 
Stacker  vo\ume,  leave  enough 
room  to  re-create  your  swap 
file  later.  If  you  normally  use  a 
4MB  swap  file,  for  example, 
you'll  want  to  leave  4MB  plus 
an  extra  megabyte  on  the 
drive:  5MB  in  all,  After  the 
Stecter  installation  is  finished, 
you  can  rebuild  your  swap  file 
on  the  non-Stacker  volume. 
The  only  other  thing  you  need 
to  do  is  tell  Windows  about 
your  Stacker  coprocessor. 
You  do  this  by  adding  the  line 
emmexclude=ccOO-cfff  in  the 
386Enh  section  of  your  SYS- 
TEM.INI  file. 

One  thing  that  may  worry 
you  a  little  about  this  whole 
business  is  the  fact  that  you're 
depending  on  this  coproces- 
sor board  to  access  all  your  da- 
ta. What  happens  if  it  goes 
bad?  Here,  there's  nothing  to 
worry  about.  If  for  any  reason 
the  board  stops  working,  the 
program  defaults  to  the  soft- 
ware-only version,  which  han- 
dles everything  itself.  1  tested 
this  by  removing  the  coproces- 
sor card  and  found  that  my  sys- 
tem worked  fine,  though  a  lit- 
tle more  slowly. 

You  can  use  all  your  usual 
disk  utilities  on  the  Sfactervol- 
ume.  If  you  accidentally  delete 
a  file,  your  undelete  program 
should  work  fine,  if  you  use 
Spinrite  or  another  low- 1  eve  I 
disk  diagnostic  program,  Stack- 
er won't  give  it  a  moment's 
pause.  And  programs  like  The 
Norton  Disk  Doctor  will  exam- 
ine your  Stacker  volume  and 
treat  it  just  like  any  other  hard 
disk. 

The  only  exception  is  that 
you  can't  run  a  defragmenting 
program  on  a  Sfactervolume. 
Because  of  the  way  Stackeror- 
ganizes  files,  you  could  actu- 


ally increase  the  volume's  frag- 
mentation. This  means  there's 
no  way  to  defragment  your 
Stacker  volume,  except  by 
backing  everything  up  and  re- 
storing it.  Stac  realizes  that 
this  is  a  weakness  with  the  sys- 
tem, and  it  is  planning  to  in- 
clude its  own  defragmenting 
program  with  future  versions. 

Now  we're  at  the  bottom 
line,  and  the  two  bottom-line 
questions  are,  How  much  com- 
pression will  I  get?  and  How 
much  will  my  system  slow 
down?  On  my  60MB  hard 
disk,  I  received  an  overall  com- 
pression ratio  of  2:1  using  the 
coprocessor  version.  This 
means  I  doubled  the  capacity 
of  my  hard  disk,  from  60MB  to 
120MB, 

As  far  as  performance 
goes,  I  ran  a  large  number  of 
benchmarks  comparing  my 
Stacker  and  non-Sfac/fsr  vol- 
umes and  found  some  surpris- 
ing results.  Using  a  set  of  da- 
tabase benchmarks  that  read 
and  write  sequential  and  ran- 
dom records,  I  found  overall 
performance  of  Stacker  and 
non-Sfac/<er  volumes  using 
the  coprocessor  to  be  nearly 
identical.  When  reading  and 
writing  sequential  information. 
Stacker  is  faster  than  my  na- 
tive hard  disk.  When  reading 
and  writing  random  informa- 
tion, it  is  slower.  As  I  men- 
tioned, this  all  averages  out. 

I  also  tested  Stacker  and 
non-Sfac/cer  volumes  without 
the  coprocessor  card,  and 
here,  the  non-Sfac/<er  volume 
was  about  18-percent  faster 
than  the  software-only  version 
of  Stacker. 

With  Stacker  and  its 
coprocessor  board,  my  sys- 
tem feels  the  same  as  it  did  be- 
fore I  installed  Stacker  Even 
with  Windows,  which  is  prob- 
ably the  most  disk-intensive 
program   on   the   planet,    I 


1            /J 

s 

r 

1 

^^  STACKER 

haven't  noticed  any  perform- 
ance degradation. 

If  you're  thinking  about  buy- 
ing Stacker,  there  isn't  much 
to  decide.  The  system  is  so 
fast  and  transparent,  you'll  im- 
mediately reap  the  reward  of 
a  much  larger  hard  disk  and 
soon  forget  you're  using  it. 
You  do  need  to  take  into  ac- 
count, however,  the  size  of 
your  current  hard  disk  and 
how  much  you'll  gain  by  install- 
ing Stacker 

The  larger  your  current 
hard  disk,  the  more  you'll  get 
from  Stacker.  If  you  have  a 
20MB  disk,  Stacker  can  turn  it 
into  a  40,  but  for  what  Stacker 
costs,  you  could  buy  a  new 
40MB  hard  drive.  With  a  40MB 
disk,  however,  StackerwlW  pay 
for  itself,  and  with  anything  larg- 
er than  40MB,  Stacker  will 
give  you  the  most  cost-effec- 
tive increase  in  disk  capacity 
you'll  find  anywhere.  To  in- 
crease your  hard  drive's  capac- 
ity, you  just  can't  go  wrong 
with  Stacker  □ 


IBM  PC  am! 
Gompatibles,  51 2K 
RAM,  hard  drive— 
$229  lor 
coprocessor 
version,  $149  for 
software-only 
version 

STAC  ELECTRONICS 
5993  Avenlda  Enclnas 
Carlsiiad,  CA  92008 
(619)431-7474 


83 


WORKPLACE 


Daniel  Janal 


A  computer- 
generated 
tliank-you  note 
doesn't  liave 
to  look  like  the 
most  recent 
clearinghouse 
sweenstakes  form. 


HOW  DO  I  THANK 
THEE?  WITH  A 
NOTE,  OF  COURSE. 

When  1  was  growing  up,  send- 
ing thank-you  notes  for  gifts 
was  considered  a  sign  of 
good  taste.  But  lil<e  most  ad- 
olescents, for  me,  writing 
tliem  took  a  back  seat  to  watcti- 
ing  ball  games.  Maybe  that's 
wtiy  relatives  stopped  send- 
ing me  birthday  and  holiday 
presents,  Maybe  if  I'd 
thanked  them,  the  presents 
would  still  be  coming. 

Hmm,  what  a  concept.  May- 
be it  works  for  businesses  as 
well.  You  send  business  pros- 
pects thank-you  notes,  and 
they  send  more  business  your 
way.  After  all,  a  proper  thank- 
you  note  serves  many  func- 
tions. 

For  one,  you  can  keep  your 
name  in  front  of  prospects  and 
clients  by  honestly  thanking 
them  for  their  time,  effort,  and 
interest.  Your  note  will  stand 
out  while  a  direct-mail  piece 
might  not  even  register. 

One  editor  has  a  tremen- 
dousiy  positive  view  of  me  sim- 


ply because  I  sent  him  a  thank- 
you  note  early  in  our  business 
relationship.  Even  though  our 
paths  rarely  cross,  he  still 
tells  people  I'm  a  gentleman — 
all  because  I  took  the  time  to 
thank  him. 

Why  don't  people  bother 
with  thank-you  notes  any- 
more? Let  me  count  the  excus- 
es: sloppy  penmanship,  spell- 
ing, and  grammar;  lost  ad- 
dresses; too  lazy. 

Fortunately,  your  computer 
can  solve  these  problems 
and  more.  You  can  use  a 
word  processor  to  write  the  let- 
ter, check  the  spelling,  and 
correct  the  grammar.  If  you 
have  horrible  handwriting, 
you  can  use  a  font  that  mim- 
ics handwriting  like  Script  or 
Architect.  (Check  with  large 
font  libraries  from  Adobe  or 
with  shareware  sources.)  If 
you're  truly  lazy,  you  can 
scan  your  signature  into  the 
computer  and  paste  it  onto 
thank-you  notes. 

Your  note  should  contain 
certain  key  components:  It 
should  thank  the  recipient 
and  refer  to  a  specific  inci- 
dent the  two  of  you  shared. 
That  way  you  avoid  the  look 
and  feel  of  a  form  letter,  while 
prompting  the  recipient  to  re- 
member you.  You  then  have 
permission  to  conduct  busi- 
ness, addressing  the  per- 
son's requests  and  questions. 
Finally,  you  should  end  with  a 
specific  promise  to  follow  up. 

How  do  you  remember 
enough  about  all  the  people 
you  meet  to  follow  up  without 
getting  them  confused? 
When  I  meet  people  at  trade 
shows  and  seminars,  I  ask  for 
business  cards  and  then 
make  a  note  of  the  person's 
interests,  my  promises,  and 
what  we  talked  about.  You 
don't  have  to  write  The  Great 
American  Novel. 

How  does  all  this  save 
time  if  you  have  to  write  50  dif- 
ferent notes  to  people  you 
met  at  the  Gargantuan  Con- 


vention? Not  to  worry.  You'll 
find  that  90  percent  of  your  let- 
ters fall  into  three  categories: 
I'll  call  you  to  follow  up,  I'm 
sending  you  the  product  now, 
and  I'll  be  sending  you  the 
product  in  the  future.  If  you 
create  three  separate  notes 
(or  letters,  if  you  have  a  lot  to 
say)  with  such  sentiments  on 
your  word  processor,  you'll 
have  covered  the  majority  of 
your  thank-you-note  recipi- 
ents. Then,  you  can  use  the 
time  you've  saved  to  corre- 
spond even  more  personally 
with  the  other  10  percent. 

Sort  your  business  cards  in- 
to three  piles  to  correspond 
with  the  three  note  categories 
so  you  can  "batch-process" 
the  letters  and  virtually  auto- 
mate the  system.  Write  the 
three  basic  notes,  call  up  the 
first  one,  and  either  type  the 
person's  name  and  personal 
references  or  use  the  mail- 
merge  feature  of  your  word 
processor. 

By  stonng  the  information 
in  a  file,  you  can  retrieve  it  for 
reference  and  reprinting  when- 
ever you  want.  If  you  find 
mail  merge  confusing,  you 
can  make  a  copy  of  the  mas- 
ter letter  and  manually  type 
the  information  onto  the  copy, 
print  it  immediately,  and  save 
it  for  the  future.  Laser  printing 
will  allow  you  to  send  nicely 
printed  letters  and  notes — 
even  on  fancy  letterhead  and 
odd  paper  sizes,  such  as 
note  cards.  Try  printing  a  few 
sample  sheets  before  invest- 
ing in  a  load  of  paper, 
though.  You  also  should  print 
a  few  practice  sheets  until 
you  get  the  margin  spacing 
just  nght. 

Taking  the  time  to  send 
thank-you  notes  to  your  cli- 
ents and  prospects  is  smart 
business.  You'll  be  remem- 
bered for  remembering  them. 
By  the  way,  thank  you  for  read- 
ing this  far.  I  wish  I  could 
send  a  note  to  thank  each  of 
you  individually.  □ 


84        COMPUTE 


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treet  Legal 


Keep 

your  home  office 

running 

on  the  straight  and 

narrow. 

By  Rosalind  Resnick 
and  Susie  Archer 


People  who  run  home  offices  typically 
spend  half  their  time  worrying  about  get- 
ting business  in  the  door — and  the  oth- 
er half  worrying  that  they've  taken  on 
too  much.  With  all  the  attention  paid  to 
sales  and  marketing,  the  legal  aspects 
of  setting  up  and  maintaining  a  home 
office  are  often  overlooked.  And  yet 
there  are  many  legal  questions  that 
ought  to  give  you  pause:  What  if  you 
need  a  contract  drawn  up''  Which  le- 
gal software  gives  you  the  biggest 
bang  for  the  buck?  And,  most  basic  of 
all,  does  your  community  even  permit 
you  to  work  from  home? 


Legal  questions  often  defy  easy  an- 
swers, but  that  doesn't  mean  that  you 
should  rush  out  and  hire  a  lawyer. 
Your  PC,  a  modem,  and  a  couple  of 
self-help  law  books  may  be  what  you 
need  to  cut  through  all  but  the  thorni- 
est of  legal  problems.  Here's  a  begin- 
ner's guide  to  Home  Office  Law  101. 

Zoning 

The  first  legal  issue  many  home  office 
users  must  confront  is  whether  they 
can  legally  open  a  home  office  at  all. 
Some  cities  and  states  are  very  strict 
while  others  take  a  more  tolerant  view 


86 


COMPUTE 


i-gffr?^ 


M 


\ 


I 


of  people  running  businesses  in  resi- 
dential areas.  Many  communities  don't 
allow  businesses  to  operate  from  a 
home  but  make  exceptions  for  profes- 
sionals such  as  doctors,  lawyers,  writ- 
ers, and  artists.  Illegally  operating  a 
home  office  can  result  in  a  court  order 
to  cease  all  business  activity,  fines, 
and  even  jaiL  The  reality  however,  is 
that  in  most  places  home  business 
bans  are  unenforced.  (That  doesn't 
mean  you  should  break  the  law.) 

The  best  way  to  avoid  zoning  has- 
sles is  to  maintain  good  relationships 
with  your  neighbors,  find  out  what 


kinds  of  businesses  you  can  and  can't 
run  from  home,  and  obtain  all  neces- 
sary permits  and  variances.  To  find  out 
which  home  businesses  are  permitted, 
simply  go  to  city  hall  and  leaf  through 
the  local  zoning  ordinances  or  ask  a 
city  or  county  zoning  official  for  help. 
If  it  turns  out  that  your  business  is 
not  allowed,  you  can  always  petition 
the  local  zoning  or  planning  board  for 
a  variance.  You  should  try  to  show 
that  what  you  are  doing  is  similar  to  a 
permitted  occupation,  that  enforcing 
the  ordinance  would  strip  you  of  your 
livelihood,   and  that  your  business 


would  not  disrupt  the  neighborhood. 
It's  not  a  bad  idea  to  take  a  few  neigh- 
bors with  you — as  long  as  they're  on 
your  side.  Getting  a  building  permit 
may  require  another  trip  to  city  hall. 

Permits 

Thinking  about  turning  your  spare  bed- 
room, garage,  or  toolshed  into  a  cozy 
home  office?  If  you're  planning  to  do 
more  than  slap  on  a  fresh  coat  of 
paint,  you  may  need  a  building  permit. 
You  may  also  need  to  obtain  an  occu- " 
palional  license,  register  your  busi- 
ness, gain  permission  to  collect  sales 

87 


tax,  get  an  employer's  tax  ID  number 
from  the  Internal  Revenue  Service,  and 
file  articles  of  incorporation. 

Insurance 

Many  people  who  work  at  home  don't 
realize  that  their  homeowner's  policy 
may  not  fully  insure  computer  equip- 
ment used  for  business. 

Depending  on  the  replacement  val- 
ue of  your  home  office  equipment,  you 
may  want  to  buy  an  additional  policy 
from  a  specialty  insurer  such  as  Safe- 
ware,  the  Insurance  Agency  via  Com- 
puServe (type  GO  MALL)  or  by  calling 
(800)  848-3469. 

Incorporation 

If  you're  like  most  home  business  own- 
ers and  your  company  consists  of  you 
alone  or  you  and  your  spouse,  you  prob- 
ably don't  need  to  incorporate.  As  a 
sole  proprietor,  you  and  the  business 
are  one  and  the  same.  What  the  busi- 
ness earns  is  yours  to  keep;  what  the 
business  borrows  is  money  you  owe. 
As  your  business  grows,  you  may 
want  to  consider  a  more  formal  compa- 
ny structure.  But  beware:  A  partnership 
can  burden  you  with  somebody  else's 
debts.  Incorporating  your  business 
may  lend  it  an  air  of  permanence  but 
can  also  saddle  you  with  unwanted  pa- 
penwork  and  legal  bills. 

Taxes 

It's  tempting  to  write  off  home  office  ex- 
penses on  your  1040,  but  unless  you 
want  to  risk  an  audit,  you've  got  to 
know  the  rules.  The  IRS  uses  this  two- 
part  test:  Is  your  home  office  used  ex- 


clusively and  regularly  for  business? 
And  if  it  is,  is  your  home  office  either 
your  principal  place  of  work  or  a  place 
where  you  meet  with  customers  or  cli- 
ents in  the  normal  course  of  business? 
If  the  answer  to  both  questions  is 
Yes,  your  tax  savings  may  be  substan- 
tial. But  remember  that  you  can  only  de- 
duct the  portion  of  your  expenses  direct- 
ly attributable  to  your  home  office. 

Lawyers 

It's  wise  to  comparison-shop  when  look- 
ing for  legal  assistance.  Depending  on 
the  lawyer's  expertise,  reputation,  and 
the  size  and  location  of  !^is  or  her  law 
firm,  rates  can  range  from  $50  to  over 
$200  per  hour.  Savvy  legal  consumers 
typically  shop  around — visiting,  or  at 
least  calling,  three  or  four  lawyers  and 
interviewing  them  about  fees,  strategy, 
and  past  experience  in  handling  their 
particular  type  of  case.  Once  you've  de- 
cided which  lawyer  to  hire,  be  sure  to 
get  a  written  contract.  Run,  don't  walk, 
from  any  lawyer  who  promises  to  win 
your  case  or  tries  to  bowl  you  over 
with  legal  mumbo  jumbo. 

Prepaid  Legal  Plans 

One  v^ay  to  keep  your  legal  bills  low  is 
to  join  a  prepaid  legal  plan  that  offers 
discounts  on  lawyers'  hourly  rates 
plus  unlimited  consultations  by  phone 
or  letter.  LawPhone  Advisory  Commu- 
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private  attorneys,  charges  $60  for  a 
three-month  membership  plus  a  S15-a- 
month  continuation  fee  or  $180  for  an 
entire  year.  Members  get  free  tele- 
phone consultations  with  a  plan  attor- 


ney; letters  written  on  their  behalf;  re- 
views of  contracts,  leases,  and  other  le- 
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Legal  Software 

For  those  home  office  professionals 
who  want  to  brave  the  legal  jungle 
alone,  there's  plenty  of  software  avail- 
able. Only  a  handful  of  programs  are 
capable  of  generating  documents  oth- 
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lishing), and  Hyatt  Legal  Services 
Home  Lattyer(MECA  Ventures)  are  gen- 
eral-purpose legal  programs  that  spit 
out  commonly  used  legal  documents. 

Online  Advice 

A  lot  of  law-related  information  can  be 
gleaned  online  at  minimal  cost.  Ameri- 
ca Online  and  PC-Link  offer  information 
in  their  Small  Business  Resource  area 
on  topics  such  as  "Obtaining  Good  Le- 
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Costs"  and  "Keeping  Your  Business 
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offers  law-related  information  in  its  Le- 
gal (LAWSIG)  and  Work  at  Home 
(WORK)  forums.  Forum  members  who 
log  on  to  LAWSIG  can  browse  through 
such  libraries  as  Computer  Law  and 
Software  and  Lawyer-to- Lawyer,  an  in- 
formation exchange  for  attorneys. 

How-To  Books 

Since  online  searches  can  be  expen- 
sive, it's  a  good  idea  to  invest  in  a  few 
self-help  legal  guides.  Three  we  recom- 
mend are  listed  in  the  List  of  Products 
and  Services  box.  lJ 


LIST  OF  PRODUCTS  AND  SERVICES 


America  Online 
Quantum  Computer  Services 
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The  Best  Lawyers  in  America, 

$95.00 
Steve  Naifeh 

and  Gregory  White  Smith 
Woodward/Wliite 
129  First  Ave.  SW 
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CompuServe 
P.O.  Box  20212 
Columbus,  OH  43220 
(800)  848-8990 

Everybody's  Guide  to  the  Law, 

$11.95 
Melvin  Belli  and  Alien  P,  Wilkinson 
HarperCollins 
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Lawyer,  $119.95 
IWECA  Ventures 
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Personal  Lawyer,  $59.95 
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ARIS  &  LETTERS 


Robert  Bixby 


Horse,  created  by 

Steve  Lyons  of 

Fairfax,  Calilomia, 

winner  ol  tire 

Grand  Prize  World  in 

tile  CoremAW! 

International  Design 

Contest, 

demonstrates  the 

versatility 

ol  CorelDRAW!. 


SHOWDOWN  AT 
THE  OK  COREL 

It's  little  wonder  that  Co- 
relDRAV!  so  dominates  its  mar- 
ket, claiming  over  two-ttiirds  of 
high-end  illustrator  sales, 
while  its  nearest  competitor 
has  less  than  a  tenth. 

Four  major  factors  account 
for  this  dominance:  Its  easier 
to  learn  and  use;  it  uses  wire- 
frame representation,  vastly 
speeding  the  screen-refresh 
process;  it  features  associat- 
ed tools  for  converting  raster 
graphics  to  vector  and  for  im- 
porting, exporting,  and  editing 
fonts;  and  it  subscribes  to  the 
popular  Pantone  color-match- 
ing system,  making  it  very  at- 
tractive to  professionals. 

A  fifth  item  is  special  ef- 
fects. CorelDRAW!  can  now 
create  blends  as  quickly  and 
easily  as  Arts  &  Letters,  which 
it  surpassed  by  bringing  out  en- 
velope distortion  first.  Text  and 
graphics  can  also  be  extrud- 


ed (extended  into  the  third  di- 
mension) with  the  option  of  add- 
ing perspective.  Speaking  of 
which,  you  can  now  use  an  au- 
tomatic routine  to  make  your 
drawn  objects  appear  to  be 
on  a  plane  oblique  to  the 
screen. 

CorelDRAWI's  documenta- 
tion has  always  been  good.  Its 
onscreen  tool  box  adds  to  the 
speed  of  learning,  and  nearly 
all  of  its  processes  are  com- 
pletely logical.  The  only  ones 
that  might  throw  a  newcomer 
off  are  determining  how  to  ed- 
it existing  text  and  how  to 
draw  with  Bezier  curves.  Both 
are  fully  covered  in  the  docu- 
mentation. 

CorelDRAW!  gives  you  the 
option  of  viewing  a  wire-frame 
representation  or  a  wire  frame 
and  a  preview  side  by  side. 
This  almost  completely  elimi- 
nates  the  waiting  encountered 
while  Arts  &  Letters  or  Micro- 
grafx  Designer  recomposes 
the  screen. 

MOSAIC.  CorelTRACE,  and 
WFNBOSS    are     programs 
shipped  with  CorelDRAW!.  MO- 
SAIC changes  the  way  you 
load  graphics  and  clip  art  via 
disk.  It  changes  the  Open 
Drawing  dialog  box  to  a  pic- 
ture  gallery   containing 
thumbnail  bitmaps  of  the 
CorelDRAW!  drawings.  In- 
stead of  depending  on  hast- 
ily conceived  names  to  iden- 
tify files,  you  can  locate  the 
file  in  the  MOS/A/C  gallery 
and  double-click  on  it, 
and  it's  loaded. 

CorelTRACE    is     an 
autotracing  utility  that 
traces  black-and-white, 
color,  or  gray-scale  imag- 
es into  an  EPS  format  Co- 
relDRAW! can  import.  It's 
not  as  fast  or  sensitive  as 
Micrografx  Designer's,  and 
you  have  to  leave  the  draw- 
ing  program  to  use  it. 
Still,  it's  better  than  many, 
and    it's  free   with    Co- 
relDRAW!. WFNBOSS  can 
convert  various  font  types 


for  use  in  your  CorelDRAW!  ren- 
derings, and  it  allows  you  to  ex- 
port Corel's  fine  stable  of 
fonts  for  use  as  downloadable 
fonts. 

The  Adobe  Type  1  fonts  ex- 
ported by  WFNBOSS  don't 
work  with  Adobe  Type  Manag- 
er programs  shipped  through 
late  spring  1991,  but  a  phone 
call  to  Corel  Systems  yielded 
assurances  that  registered  us- 
ers should  have  received  an 
updated  version  as  early  as 
last  June,  fixing  this  problem. 

As  I  mentioned,  Corel- 
DRAW! subscribes  to  the  Pan- 
tone  color-matching  system. 
You  can  specify  a  spot  color 
by  number,  and  your  printer 
will  be  able  to  come  up  with 
the  exact  color  ink  to  match. 
You  can  also  freely  mix  proc- 
ess colors  using  several  differ- 
ent mixing  schemes  and  save 
your  palette. 

With  the  latest  version  of  Co- 
relDRAW!, you  can  now  cre- 
ate bitmap  and  vector  fills  of 
your  own  or  import  any  TIF  or 
PCX  file  as  a  new  pattern. 

Envelope  distortion  is  a  new 
topic  that  may  seem  strange 
to  first-time  users.  Essentially 
it  creates  an  enveloping  rectan- 
gle around  a  selected  object. 
This  rectangle  can  then  be  dis- 
torted by  dragging  its  han- 
dles. There  are  three  set 
forms  of  distortion  and  a  free- 
hand tool.  The  feature  makes 
your  drawing  flexible — as 
though  It  were  on  a  piece  of  Sil- 
ly Putty.  By  stretching  and 
bending,  you  can  distort  it  al- 
most infinitely. 

CorelDRAW!  is  a  treasure 
chest  of  powerful  tools.  It's  so 
powerful,  in  fact,  a  printer  man- 
ufacturer told  me  it  makes  Post- 
Script  printers  look  bad  be- 
cause artists  can  easily  over- 
whelm the  PostScript  interpret- 
ers in  so  many  printers. 

Next  month  I'll  talk  about 
more  powerful  add-ons  and 
tools  for  making  graphic  arts 
and  desktop  publishing  pur- 
suits even  more  fun.  3 


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DISCOVERY 


COMPUTE  CHOICE.  Catch 

up  on  the  classics  in  their  original 

and  foreign — language. 

Anthony  Moses 


TRANSPARENT 
LANGUAGE 

To  paraphrase  Mark  Twain, 
everyone  wants  to  know  a  for- 
eign language,  but  nobody 
wants  to  learn  one.  Whien  you 
consider  how  languages  are 
usually  taught,  it's  no  wonder. 
Most  of  us  encounter  a  sec- 
ond language  in  a  high 
school  class  with  lots  of  tedi- 
ous rote  memorization  but  few 
rewards.  And  all  that  many  of 
us  can  do  with  that  language 
in  our  postacademic  days  is  to 
tell  someone  where  the  pen  of 
our  aunt  is,  as  long  as  it's  on 
the  table.  Years  later,  we  may 
toy  with  the  idea  of  going 
back  and  refreshing  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  language,  but 
we've  forgotten  too  much.  Be- 
sides, with  our  schedules,  it 
would  be  years  before  we'd  ev- 
er be  able  to  read  anything 
worthwhile:  Balzac,  Cervan- 
tes, Virgil,  Maupassant, 
Flaubert,  Ovid — all  closed 
books  to  us  until  we  can  do  sig- 
nificantly more  than  success- 
fully locate  our  aunt's  Bic. 

Transparent  Language  crea- 
tor Michael  Quinlan  had  a  sim- 
ilar problem:  How  could  he  re- 
learn  the  German  he  had  lost 
years  ago — and  relearn  it  well 
enough  to  read  what  he  want- 
ed? And  then,  while  he  and 
his  wife,  Lynn,  were  teaching 
their  four-year-old  son  to 
read,  he  had  the  chance  to 
watch  how  a  mind  first  learns 
a  language.  He  concluded 
that  perhaps  the  best  way  to 
acquire  language  skills  is  to  ac- 
commodate the  way  the  brain 
naturally  works — not  by  mem- 
orizing an  abstract  grammati- 
cal system  first,  but  by  actual- 
ly using  the  language  in  an  en- 
vironment that  provides  the 
support  of  specific  knowledge 
whenever  needed.  Quinlan  re- 


alized  that  the  comput- 
er was  uniquely  empow- 
ered to  be  that  environment. 
He  began  to  design  Transpar- 
ent Language. 

The  philosophy  of  Transpar- 
ent Language  is  that  you  can 
learn  to  read  a  language  by  ac- 
tually reading  something  in 
that  language— preferably, 
something  enjoyable,  One 
thing  that  makes  learning  to 
read  a  foreign  language  so  dif- 
ficult is  that,  for  a  long  while, 
you  probably  won't  be  dealing 
with  anything  worth  reading. 
The  common  instructional  ap- 
proach begins  with  a  simple 
core  vocabulary  and  grammar 
upon  which  you  gradually 
build.  The  textbook  reading 
samples  reflect  this,  remaining 
at  a  cautious,  low-vocabutary 
{and  high-tedium)  level.  Few 
people  can  long  bear  reading 
denatured  stories  about 
where  Marie  or  Gaius  or  Este- 
ban  place  their  writing  imple- 
ments. Worse,  a  graded  read- 
ing sample  can  limit  your  pro- 
gress by  making  no  demands 
upon  you.  The  normal  linguis- 
tic environment  of  a  child  is 
rich  and  challenging:  the 
child  is  aware  that  there's  a  lot 


of 

interest- 
ing stuff  going  on  over  his  or 
her  head  and  is  motivated  to 
learn  the  language  in  order  to 
get  the  goodies.  Quintan's 
idea  was,  simply,  to  provide 
some  goodies  worth  getting 
by  immersing  the  reader  in  an 
interesting  work  as  soon  as 
possible  and  making  reading 
it  practicable. 

On  the  surface,  the  Transpar- 
ent Language  program 
seems  quite  simple;  the  top 
half  of  the  screen  displays  the 
text  of  an  actual  literary  work 
in  German,  French,  Latin,  or 
Spanish,  supported  by  five  an- 
cillary windows  at  the  bottom. 
As  you  scroll  through  the  text, 
moving  the  highlight  from 
word  to  word  {or,  in  the  case 
of  idiomatic  constructions, 
phrase  to  phrase),  the  win- 
dows provide  a  literal  equiva- 
lent for  the  highlighted  item,  a 
translation  of  each  sentence 
or  clause  into  idiomatic  Eng- 
lish, and  additional  commen- 
tary (such  as  tracing  words  to 
their  roots  or  commenting  up- 


92        COMPUTE 


on  their  grammatical  or  syntac- 
tic functions).  If  you  prefer  to 
read  the  text  without  these 
helps,  you  can  opaque  the 
help  windows;  but  if,  while  read- 
ing, you  don't  recognize  a 
word,  you  can  glance  at  the 
definition  window.  If  a  phrase 
or  an  entire  sentence  is  incom- 
prehensible, check  the  idiomat- 
ic translation — and  then  go  on 
reading.  Just  as  you'll  improve 
your  tennis  game  only  if  you 
keep  playing  tennis,  no  matter 
how  badly  at  first,  your  read- 
ing comprehension  will  ad- 
vance only  if  you  stick  to  read- 
ing. The  odds  are  that  you'll  re- 
member the  words  the  next 
time  you  encounter  them  be- 
cause you're  learning  them  in 
the  context  of  natural  lan- 
guage usage. 

If  this  process  somehow 
seems  familiar,  perhaps  it's  be- 
cause this  is  how  you  learned 
to  read  in  the  first  place.  You 
got  the  information  you  need- 
ed as  you  needed  it,  from  an 
experienced  reader,  v/ithout 
necessarily  understanding  its 
place  in  a  comprehensive 
grammatical  scheme.  And 
while  such  a  knowledge  of 
grammar  is,  of  course,  useful, 
it's  not  essential,  As  any  lan- 
guage instructor  could  tell 
you,  a  good  writer  or  reader 
may  have  trouble  dealing  with 
grammar  exercises,  while  a  stu- 
dent who  breezes  through 
grammar  drills  may  have  no  in- 
tuitive feel  for  the  language — 
and  in  language,  the  feel  is 
the  important  thing.  Language 
use  is  a  right-brain  activity;  un- 
fortunately, most  language  in- 
struction comes  in  a  left-brain 
format  that,  though  easily  mem- 
orized, cannot  be  as  easily  ap- 
plied in  concrete  language- 
use  situations.  Quinlan  in- 
tends Transparent  Language 
to  operate  more  on  the  right- 
brain  model,  supplying  conno- 


tation (or  felt  meaning)  as  well 
as  denotation  (or  dictionary 
meaning)  for  tfie  words  you 
read — and  therefore  making  it 
more  likely  that  you  will  incor- 
porate the  words  into  a  living 
vocabulary. 

This  is  Transparent  Lan- 
guage's advantage  over 
some  other  forms  of  computer- 
assisted  language  acquisition. 
While  there  are  already  a  num- 
ber of  programs  that  purport 
to  help  you  improve  your  for- 
eign language  skills,  most  of 
these,  as  Quinlan  observes, 
"are  still  mired  in  the  textbook 
model."  They  provide  drills, 
such  as  multiple-choice  or 
true-false  exercises,  or  oper- 
ate as  foreign-language 
phrase  books.  While  these  cer- 
tainly have  their  legitimate  us- 
es— fine-tuning  your  language 
skills  or  serving  as  stopgaps  un- 
til you  can  actually  learn  tfie  lan- 
guage, for  example — they  are 
of  little  help  in  developing  a  flu- 
ent linguistic  ability.  They  also 
fail  to  take  full  advantage  of 
the  connputer's  power  to  con- 
solidate and  present  a  lot  of 
information  instantaneously,  a 
weakness  that  Transparent 
Language  seems  to  have  over- 
come. 

The  Transparent  Language 
starter  set  includes  the  master 
program  and  four  sample  sto- 
ries in  German,  Spanish,  Lat- 
in, and  French,  along  with  an 
audio  cassette  of  the  stories 
and  an  easy-to-read  User's 
Guide.  The  accompanying  cat- 
alog of  other  titles  currently 
available  from  the  Transparent 
Language  company  includes 
such  worthies  as  short  stories 
by  Guy  de  Maupassant,  "The 
Windmill  Adventure"  from  Cer- 
vantes' Don  Quixote,  a  portion 
of  Hoffmann's  The  Nutcracker 
and  the  Mouse  King  (the 
source  for  Tchaikovsky's  pop- 
ular ballet),   excerpts  from 


tronsparente 

langue 

durchsichtig 

sprache 

transpaente 

lengua 

perlucidus 

lingua 

tronsparent 

language 

tronsparente 

langue 

durchsichtig 

sprache 

transparen' 

lengua 

perlucidus 

lingua 


TRANSPARI^NH 
UNCxlACiF 

Bre^ong  The  Langiage  Bainer 


"■*!C' 


Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  and  a 
number  of  other  works  you 
probably  never  imagined  your- 
self reading  in  their  original  lan- 
guages. The  works  are  availa- 
ble in  both  5V4-  and  3'/2-inch 
disks,  as  well  as  audio  cas- 
sette versions  to  help  you  with 
hearing  and  pronouncing  the 
language. 

As  a  complement  to  the 
classroorm,  Transparent  Lan- 
guage has  a  lot  to  offer  in  ex- 
tending the  student's  reading 
skills  and  building  his  or  her 
self-confidence.  For  self-moti- 
vated former  foreign  language 
students,  Transparent  Lan- 
guage is  the  best  available  al- 
ternative to  digging  out  the 
grammar  books  and  dictionar- 
ies. Don't  fret  over  the  loca- 
tions of  relatives'  fountain 
pens:  read  a  work  of  literature 
in  a  foreign  tongue  instead. ~1 


IBM  PC  and 
compatibles,  512K 
RAM;  hard  drive 
ODiionai,  mouse 
supported— $95 

TRANSPARENT 
UIHGUAGE 
9  Ash  St. 
P.O.  Box  575 
Hollls,  NH  03049 
(800)  752-1767 
(sales  and  support) 
(800)  244-B952  (in 
New  Hampshire) 


93 


PATHWAYS 


Steven  Anzovin 


The  Wacom 

graphics  tablet. 

Will  this 

device  malte  the 

mouse 

obsolete? 


WHO  NEEDS  A 
KEYBOARD  WITH 
THESE  GADGETS 
AROUND? 

Carpal  tunnel  syndrome.  Typ- 
ist's neck,  Weak  back  and  ab- 
dominal muscles.  Ailments  of 
the  computer  age.  And  there 
in  front  of  you  sits  the  main  cul- 
prit: your  keyboard. 

Mice  aren't  much  better. 
They're  often  clumsy,  and 
mouse  fatigue  is  increasingly 
common.  So  !  gave  my  key- 
board and  mouse  to  my  18- 
month-old  daughter,  who 
loves  to  type,  and  then 
checked  out  some  alterna- 
tives. 

The  Wacom  SD-510c  graph- 
ics tablet  for  PCs  and  fvlacs 
(Wacom,  Park  80  West,  Plaza 
2,  Saddle  Brook,  New/  Jersey 
07662;  201-265-4226;  $695) 
is  receiving  a  lot  of  press  as  a 
breakthrough  tool  for  graphic 
artists.  What's  new  about  the 
Wacom  is  that  the  pen  is  cord- 
less and  pressure  sensitive. 

With  the  right  paint  soft- 


ware, such  as  Oasis  from 
Time  Arts  (1425  Corporate  Cen- 
ter Parkway,  Santa  Rosa,  Cali- 
fornia 95407;  707-576-7722; 
$795;  fvlacs  only),  you  can  get 
the  look  and  feel  of  traditional 
media  like  acrylics,  pastels, 
and  watercolors.  For  example, 
you  can  emulate  a  watercolor 
brush  stroke,  with  the  color 
lightening  and  brush  width  thin- 
ning as  you  reduce  pen  pres- 
sure. 

The  PC  version  of  the  tablet 
works  with  any  software  that  ac- 
cepts a  mouse,  making  it  an 
excellent  alternative  for  peo- 
ple more  comfortable  with  a 
pen.  It's  small  enough  for  your 
lap,  and  the  pen  only  weighs 
a  few  grams. 

As  a  drawing  tool,  the 
Wacom  tablet  has  no  peer, 
but  pressure-sensitive  input  de- 
vices have  real  potential  for 
use  in  a  Mnc/ows-style  GUI, 
For  example,  little  gadgets  at 
the  corners  of  windows  could 
let  you  page  through  a  docu- 
ment faster  or  slower  by  vary- 
ing the  pen  pressure  or  let  you 
send  a  window  to  the  back, 
bring  it  to  the  front,  or  even 
park  it  in  the  middle. 

And  why  not  adapt  the 
Wacom  pressure-sensitive 
technology  for  toot  control  of 
a  computer?  I'd  like  to  see  a 
"gas  pedal"  to  increase  my 
computer's  speed  when  I'm  in 
a  hurry  and  a  "brake"  to  keep 
the  machine  from  outrunning 
my  thoughts. 

The  Mac  world  offers  more 
alternative  input  devices  PC  us- 
ers should  ask  for.  One  gee- 
whiz  tool  is  the  Voice  Naviga- 
tor II  from  Articulate  Systems 
(600  West  Cummings  Park, 
Suite  4500,  Woburn,  Massachu- 
setts 01801;  617-876-5236; 
$795).  Once  you've  trained  it, 
you  can  speak  any  command 
or  menu  option  into  its  micro- 
phone, and  your  Mac  wili  obey 
instantly.  The  Voice  Navigator 
has  real  potential  as  a  mouse 
replacement,  especially  for 
people  who  need  free  hands. 


With  this  in  mind,  can  verbal 
text  entry  be  far  behind? 

If  your  Mac  isn't  powerful 
enough,  you  can  really  "play 
with  power"  with  Transfinite 
System's  Gold  Brick  (PO.  Box 
N,  fvllT  Branch  Post  Office, 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts 
02139-0903;  617-969-9570; 
$169-$245).  This  tiny  inter- 
face lets  you  connect  any  Nin- 
tendo controller  to  a  Mac 
through  the  ADB  port.  It  works 
just  like  a  mouse  and  even  em- 
ulates some  keyboard  ac- 
tions. 

Hooking  up  a  Nintendo  to 
your  Mac  may  sound  odd,  but 
keep  in  mind  that  toys  like  the 
Power  Glove,  Broderbund's 
UFORCE,  and  Nintendo's  Pow- 
er Pad  are  inexpensive  and 
built  like  tanks,  perfect  for  ap- 
plications where  ruggedness 
and  replaceability  are  impor- 
tant. 

The  Gold  Brick  already  has 
some  unusual  applications.  At 
the  Speech-Language  Pathol- 
ogy Lab  at  Northeastern  Uni- 
versity, experimenters  Linda 
Farrier  and  Harriet  Fell  are  us- 
ing a  Mac,  a  Gold  Brick,  and 
a  Power  Pad  to  develop  a  sys- 
tem called  the  Baby  Babble 
Blanket,  which  allows  speech- 
disabled  babies  to  make  mean- 
ingful sounds  and  initiate  ver- 
bal interactions.  The  Mac  is- 
sues digitized  sounds — bab- 
bling or  any  other  noise,  includ- 
ing words — according  to  how 
and  where  the  baby  moves 
around  on  the  Power  Pad.  Far- 
rier says  the  system  could  al- 
so be  used  as  a  biofeedback 
device  for  adults  in  physical 
therapy. 

Wacom  pen  in  left  hand, 
Power  Glove  on  right,  and  bark- 
ing commands  into  the  Voice 
Navigator,  I  tried  to  whte  this 
column  but  found  that  none  of 
these  gadgets  could  do  the 
job  sufficiently.  I  managed  to 
rescue  my  keyboard  and 
mouse  from  my  daughter,  but 
I'll  never  feel  quite  the  same 
about  them  again.  D 


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Ciicle  Reader  Service  Number  168 


Reach 

for  the  stars 

with 

your  personal 

computer. 


BY  LAMONT  WOOD 


.  alileo  probably  would  have 
been  Ihe  first  person  to  suggest 
a  software  program  for  tracking 
ttie  heavenly  bodies  tiad  he  on- 
ly been  born  a  few  centuries  lat- 
er. As  Galileo.  Copernicus,  and  the 
rest  of  the  stargazing  pioneers  knew, 
you  can  easily  get  lost  in  the  night  sky. 
The  random  spread  of  stars  can  de- 
feat any  attempt  to  learn  the  ever- 
shifting  planetary  positions  and  doz- 
ens of  star  patterns  that  at  first  glance 
look  nothing  like  the  constellations 
ttiey're  supposed  to  form. 

In  the  old  days,  the  undaunted 
could  venture  into  the  night  with  star- 
chart  wheels  showing  the  stars'  nightly 
positions,  usually  for  the  wrong  latitude 
and  with  confusing  orientations.  And 
then  there  were  clouds,  mosquitoes, 
jiggling.telescopes,  and  eventually,  an 
urban  sky  glow  to  drown  out  all  but 
the  brightest  stars. 

Now  there's  a  better  way—astrono- 
my software  that  literally  lets  you  ex- 
plore the  sky  during  the  day— even  in- 
doors. You  can  learn  the  sky  and  solar 
system  as  if  they  were  your  own  neigh- 
borhood, which  in  a  way,  they  are. 

Here  we'll  take  a  look  at  several  lead- 
ing astronomy  packages  for  the  PC. 
Each  package  was  examined  on  a  16- 
MHz  386  machine  with  a  VGA  monitor. 
No  coprocessor  was  used.  First  let's 


go  over  some  basic  terminology. 

Positions  and  sizes  in  ttie  sky  are 
measured  in  degrees,  where  a  degree 
is  about  tlie  width  (not  length)  of  your 
index  finger  at  arm's  length.  Brightness 
is  measured  on  a  magnitude  scale, 
where  1  is  about  as  bright  as  any  star 
gets  and  6  is  about  as  faint  a  star  as 


sky),  has  a  clumsier  menu-driven  inter- 
face, and  provides  no  screen  shots  of 
celestial  objects.  According  to  Zephyr, 
it  runs  slower  because  things  are  cal- 
culated with  more  precision.  The  basic 
version  comes  with  stars  to  magnitude 
6.5,  and  there's  an  expanded  version, 
for  about  $30  more  and  8MB  more  of 


the  positions  of  the  four  Galilean 
moons,  a  favorite  of  many  backyard  as- 
tronomers, (lo.  Ganymede,  Castillo, 
and  Europa,  lined  up  with  Jupiter's 
equator  and  changing  positions  night- 
ly, can  be  seen  with  a  small  tele- 
scope.) There's  even  an  overhead 
view  so  you  can  identify  each  moon 


Dance  of  the  Planets  allows  you  to  view  the 
solar  system  from  outer  space,  as  in  this 
view  of  Saturn,  January  1991. 

you  can  see  on  a  very  dark  night  with- 
out a  telescope.  The  programs  ask  for 
your  location  in  longitude  and  latitude, 
not  only  to  figure  rising  and  setting 
times,  but  also  to  calculate  the  appear- 
ance of  solar  and  lunar  eclipses. 
You're  also  urged  to  use  a  coproces- 
sor to  speed  up  orbital  calculations. 

For  the  beginner,  EZCosmos  from  Fu- 
ture Trends  seems  like  the  best  bet  at 
$69.95,  The  screen  shows  the  sky  as  it 
would  look  if  you  were  on  your  back 
with  your  feet  to  the  north.  Placing  the 
cursor  on  an  object  and  pressing  En- 
ter will  bring  up  identifying  information 
about  the  object.  Additionally,  there 
are  screen  graphics  (in  the  Compu- 
Serve GIF  format)  of  41  objects,  includ- 
ing the  planets  and  prominent  galaxies 
and  nebula  you  can  call  up.  (Alas,  for 
the  beginner  who  might  be  misled, 
these  are  time-lapse  photos  taken 
through  a  big  telescope — more  colorful 
and  detailed  than  what  you  would  see 
through  a  backyard  telescope,) 

EZCosmos  finds  and  displays 
named  objects  and  allows  you  to 
speed  up  the  pace  of  time  and  watch 
the  planets  move  against  the  stars.  {At 
intervals,  Mars  actually  stops  and 
moves  backward.)  Also,  you  can  focus 
on  the  sun  and  watch  for  eclipses. 

While  this  program  does  make  it 
easy  to  take  a  grand  tour  of  the  uni- 
verse, it  isn't  for  the  serious  backyard 
astronomer.  It  doesn't  offer  stars  dim- 
mer than  sixth  magnitude,  and  it  can't 
zoom  in  to  a  field  narrower  than  one  de- 
gree— a  field  twice  the  diameter  of  the 
full  moon, 

Lodestar  Plus  II  from  Zephyr  Servic- 
es ($199,95)  at  first  seemed  like  the 
same  thing,  only  it's  slower  (taking 
more  than  a  minute  to  draw  the  full 
98        COMPUTE 


EZCosmos  lets  you  search  the  constel- 
lations as  if  you  were  on  your  back  with 
your  feet  facing  north. 

disk  space,  which  has  an  SAO  (Smith- 
sonian Astrophysical  Observatory) 
star  catalog  of  270,000  stars  that 
reach  all  the  way  to  12th  magnitude. 

As  with  EZCosmos.  you  can  place 
the  cursor  on  an  object,  have  the  sys- 
tem identify  it,  and  then  zoom  in  to  a 
specific  magnification^this  time  up  to 
999.9  powers,  covering  a  field  barely 
one-tenth  of  a  degree  in  diameter.  The 
only  way  to  get  a  printout  is  by  press- 
ing PrintScreen,  and  you  need  a  CGA 
monitor  for  that  to  work. 

LodeSter^especially  the  expanded 
version — would  seem  to  be  best  for  the 
serious  amateur  who  wants  to  plan  an 
observation  session  or  perhaps  identi- 
fy the  contents  of  an  astrophoto,  cas- 
es in  which  precision  matters  more 
than  speed. 

Meanwhile,  The_Sky  4.^,  from  Soft- 
ware Bisque,  is  meant  to  be  used  out- 
doors. Its  control  menus  are  shown  in 
red  so  using  the  computer  won't 
wreck  your  night  vision.  You  can  point 
and  click  your  input  from  an  onscreen 
keyboard  chart  without  having  to  fum- 
ble at  the  keyboard  in  the  darkness. 

The  star  field  is  painted  almost  in- 
stantly on  the  screen — no  tedious 
waits.  You  can  zoom  in  on  anything  with- 
in view  by  moving  the  mouse  cursor  to 
the  field  you  want  to  see  and  drawing 
a  box  and  clicking.  It  was  quite  a  thrill 
to  zoom  in  on  clusters  like  Pleiades. 

The_Sky  will  take  you  down  to  two- 
tenths  of  a  degree,  where  the  moon  or 
sun  takes  up  most  of  the  screen.  How- 
ever, only  an  outline  disk  is  shown;  no 
attempt  is  made  to  show  the  actual  so- 
lar bodies.  You're  supposed  to  look  for 
those  yourself  througli  your  telescope. 

In  addition  to  showing  the  planets, 
The_Sky  has  a  special  display  to  show 


The_Sky  is  meant  to  be  used  outdoors.  The 
retrograde  rnotion  of  Mare  is  shown  with  the 
program's  time-skip  feature. 

and  its  actual  location  in  orbit,  which 
isn't  evident  from  the  edge-on  view  you 
get  from  Earth,  You  can  also  watch 
this  miniature  solar  system  in  action  by 
speeding  up  the  pace — orbital  move- 
ment is  evident  even  with  five-minute  in- 
crements. 

There's  also  a  special  eclipse  dis- 
play that  shows  lunar  and  solar  eclips- 
es for  your  location,  You  see  the  way 
the  moon  and  sun  will  move  across 
each  other  with  the  times  of  first  and 
last  contact  and  the  times  of  maximum 
coverage.  Earth's  umbra  during  a  lunar 
eclipse  is  seen  in  red — the  color  the 
moon  actually  appears  during  a  total  lu- 
nar eclipse. 

The_Sky  comes  in  three  different 
packages:  At  $75  for  Level  I,  you'll  see 
up  to  10,000  stars  and  deep-sky  ob- 
jects at  magnitude  5.5;  for  $99  you  can 
get  the  Level  II  version  and  see  up  to 
45,000  stars  and  other  celestial  objects 
at  magnitude  7.9;  Level  III,  for  $175, 
shows  272,000  stars  and  objects  to 
magnitude  9. 

A  telescope-link  kit  is  also  available 
for  $699,  You  mount  sensors  on  the 
two  axes  of  your  telescope,  and  after 
you  calibrate  your  telescope's  setting 
on  two  selected  stars,  your  cursor  will 
point  in  exactly  the  direction  of  your  tel- 
escope. It's  pricey  but  with  the  link  kit, 
you  can  look  at  scores  of  objects  in 
one  evening  with  no  time  lost  due  to 
endless  blind  searches. 

If  The_Sky  is  intended  for  the  seri- 
ous amateur  astronomer.  Dance  of  the 
Planets  from  A.R.C.  Science  Simulation 
is  intended  for  the  serious  amateur  as- 
trophysicist. Priced  at  $195,  it  shows 
the  celestial  globe  and  stars  therein, 
but  that's  incidental. 

The    opening    screen    shows    a 


starfield  with  an  unfamiliar  bright  star  in 
the  middle,  near  the  constellation  Ori- 
on. That's  the  sun,  seen  from  your  view- 
ing position  of  about  2.5  billion  miles 
out  in  space.  You  can  zoom  in  to  a  max- 
imum magnification  of  32,000  and 
look  at  individual  planets  and,  with  an 
accelerated  time  frame,  vk^atch  them  ro- 


LodeStar  Plus  II  offers  precision  over 
speed.  The  expanded  version  has  an  SAO 
star  catalog  of  over  270,000  stars. 

tate.  The  software  also  includes  maps 
of  the  planetary  surfaces.  Although 
Earth  and  Mars  are  hardly  more  than 
large  dots  with  crude  features,  Jupiter 
is  big  enough  for  you  to  watch  the 
Great  Red  Spot  slide  by. 

You  can  also  switch  to  an  Earth- 
based  view  to  watch  eclipses  and 
events  like  the  apparent  merging  of  Ju- 
piter and  Venus  on  June  17,  2  B.C. 
The  point  of  Dance,  however,  is  to  pull 
back  into  space,  arrange  the  viewing 
position  you  like  (you  can  change  the 
angle  from  which  you're  looking  into 
the  solar  system),  invoke  the  command 
that  outlines  the  orbits,  and  start  the 
dance  of  the  planets.  Everything  is  vis- 
ual and  obvious,  and  by  the  time 
you're  finished  with  the  manual, 
Kepler's  Laws  and  the  geometry  of  el- 
liptical orbits  ought  to  be  second  na- 
ture. The  five  parameters  it  takes  to  de- 
fine an  orbit  will  no  longer  be  mathemat- 
ical gibberish,  but  seif-evident  state- 
ments. 

Dance  comes  with  orbital  data  not  on- 
ly for  our  nine  planets,  but  for  their  61 
satellites  (including  Pluto's)  and  for 
4650  asteroids  and  1300  comets.  Pick 
out  a  particular  cornel,  track  it  into  the 
future,  and  see  if  Jupiter  ever  swallows 
it  or  vectors  it  into  the  sun.  You  can 
track  20  orbits  simultaneously,  al- 
though for  results  anytime  soon,  you'll 
want  to  get  a  coprocessor. 

Dance  will  even  give  you  a  3-D  view 
of  the  orbits,  The  package  comes  with 
red-and-blue  goggles  like  the  ones 
used  for  watching  3-D  movies.  They 
work  best  for  examining  comet  orbits, 
which  are  often  rotated  away  from  the 
plane  of  the  planets'  orbits.  You  can 
make  up  your  own  comets,  input  their 
orbit  parameters,  and  watch  what  hap- 


PRODUCT  BOX 

Chartwheels  II 

$150.00 

Astrolabe 

350  Underpass  Rd. 

Brewster,  MA  02631 

(508)  896-5081 

Lodestar  Plus  II 

$199,95 

$229.95  with  SAO  Database 

Zephyr  Services 

1900  Murray  Ave. 

Pitsburgh.  PA15217 

Dance  of  the  Planets 

SI  95.00 

(800)  533^6600 
(412)422-6600 

A.R.C.  Software 
P.O.  Box  1955 
Loveland,  CO  80539-1955 
(303)  663-3223 

The  Sky  4.1 

$75.00  for  Level  1 
$99.00  for  Level  II 
$175.00  for  Level  III 

EZCosmos  3.0 

$69  95 

Software  Bisque 
912  12th  St.,  Ste.  A 

Future  Trends  Software 
1601  Osprey  Dr.,  Ste.  102 
Desoto.  TX  75115 

Golden,  CO  80401 
(303)  278-4478 

(214)  224-3279 

pens.  The  only  thing  Dance  left  out  is 
a  spaceship  option  so  you  can  figure 
in  the  results  of  acceleration  and  fuel 
consumption. 

For  those  of  you  who  wonder  what 
it's  all  about,  there's  also  astrological 
software  on  the  market.  We  looked  at 
Chartwheels  II  ($150  from  Astrolabe) 
and  found  that  it  does  indeed  track  the 
positions  of  the  planets.  You  won't 
learn  astronomy,  though,  since  it's  on- 
ly concerned  with  the  zodiac  for  cast- 


ing astrological  charts  and  showing  the 
influence  of  the  planets  at  a  particular 
moment. 

Planets  do,  in  fact,  exert  influence — 
gravitationally  on  each  other  anyway. 
Gazing  at  the  results  with  the  help  of  as- 
tronomy software  could  help  open  up 
the  heavens  for  you,  if  that's  what 
you're  after.  At  the  very  least,  you'll  no 
longe  fumble  your  way  through  the 
night  sky. 

Galileo  would  approve.  □ 


99 


FAST  FORWARD 


David  English 


Today  you  can 

have  a  sound  card 

and  a  SCSI 

interface  without 

tlie  need  tor 

a  bus  slot,  wtilcli 

allows  you 

to  run  CD-ROM 

applications 

such  as  Campton's 

Mammm 

Encvclapetita 

trom  any 

laptop  computer. 


YOU  CAN  MIX 
MULTIMEDIA  AND 
LAPTOPS 

Laptop  innovation  is  nnoving 
so  fast  that  the  last  thing  most 
manufacturers  want  to  see  is 
a  set  of  standards  that  will 
lock  them  into  yesterday's  tech- 
noiogy.  Perhaps  in  a  few 
years,  v/hen  the  size  of  the  lap- 
top has  stabilized,  manufactur- 
ers will  agree  on  standards 
that  will  allow  you  to  add  vari- 
ous peripherals  and  upgrade 
your   LCD   screen   or   hard 


Stereo  (IVIsound  International, 
1965  West  4th  Avenue,  Van- 
couver, British  Columbia,  Can- 
ada V6J  1M8;  604-732-4849; 
$249.95)  is  a  sound-card-in-a- 
box  that  plugs  into  your  paral- 
lel port  and  includes  a  built-in 
amplifier  and  stereo  head- 
phones. Msound  can  emulate 
present  sound  card  standards 
and  can  be  upgraded  to  emu- 
late future  standards,  Current- 
ly, Msound  ships  with  drivers 
for  the  Ad  Lib  sound  card  and 
the  Covox  Speech  Thing,  as 
well  as  utilities  that  can  con- 
vert fvlacintosh  and  Tandy 
sounds  to  f\/lsound's  native  for- 


drive.  But  that's  the  future— 
none  of  the  laptop  manufactur- 
ers I've  tall<ed  to  see  that  sce- 
nario unfolding  anytime  soon. 

With  today's  models,  once 
you  buy  your  laptop,  you  loci< 
yourself  into  today's  technolo- 
gy with  little  chance  to 
change  with  the  times. 

What's  the  answer?  Your  par- 
allel port.  Peripheral  manufac- 
turers have  discovered  how  to 
tap  into  your  parallel  port  and 
still  let  you  use  your  printer. 
Plug  a  small  box  into  your  par- 
allel port,  plug  your  printer  ca- 
ble into  the  box.  and  it's  in- 
stant expansion. 

How  would  you  like  to  add 
digital  stereo  sound  to  your  lap- 
top or  desktop  PC?  Msound 


mat.  The  company  is  working 
on  drivers  for  the  Sound 
Blaster  and  Multimedia  Win- 
dows. 

Msound  provides  high- 
quality  sound.  Msound  has  a 
dynamic  range  of  96  dB  and 
a  signal-to-noise  ratio  of  60 
dB,  and  can  handle  sounds 
with  frequencies  of  20  Hz  to 
20  kHz.  Unlike  the  Sound 
Blaster,  Msound  doesn't  offer 
sound-in  (just  sound-out),  but 
it  does  offer  a  built-in  expan- 
sion bus  for  add-on  modules. 

The  package  also  includes 
a  sample  disk  of  sounds. 
There  was  a  bit  of  distortion  in 
some  of  them,  but  the  stereo 
effect  was  terrific.  Unfortunate- 
ly, the  Ad  Lib  driver  doesn't 


work  with  all  Ad  Lib-compati- 
ble games.  ( I  couldn't  get  Red 
Baron  or  Stellar  7to  recognize 
Msound's  Ad  Lib  driver.)  The 
company  is  working  to  line  up 
support  for  Msound's  own 
sound  format. 

Msound  is  well  worth  look- 
ing into,  whether  for  a  laptop 
or  desktop  computer.  And 
when  Msound  releases  its  Mul- 
timedia Windows  drivers, 
you'll  be  able  to  use  your  com- 
puter to  hear  a  flood  of  new  mul- 
timedia titles. 

What's  that  you  say?  How 
can  you  run  the  new  multime- 
dia software  without  a  CD- 
ROM  player?  And  how  in  the 
world  are  you  going  to  hook  a 
CD-ROM  player  to  a  laptop 
computer?  Glad  you  asl<ed. 
For  just  $179,  you  can  buy  the 
T338  MiniSCSI  Parallel-to- 
SCSI  Host  Adapter  (Trantor 
Systems.  5415  Randall  Place, 
Fremont,  California  94538: 
415-770-1400).  The  MiniSCSI 
plugs  into  your  parallel  port 
and  instantly  adds  a  SCSI 
port  to  your  computer.  It's 
small  and  lightweight  (just  2.5 
ounces)  and  works  with  most 
SCSI-based  CD-ROM  players 
and  hard  drives.  You  can  dai- 
sychain  as  many  as  seven 
SCSI  devices  together  with  a 
single  MiniSCSI,  The  MiniSCSI 
draws  all  of  the  power  it 
needs  from  the  first  device  in 
your  SCSI  chain. 

There's  a  downside.  The 
MiniSCSI  is  rated  only  about 
half  the  speed  of  a  high-end 
multimedia  CD-ROM  player. 
According  to  Jim  Switz,  market- 
ing manager  at  Trantor,  that's 
not  as  bad  as  It  sounds.  Be- 
cause it's  difficult  for  any  CD- 
ROM  player  to  sustain  a  high 
speed,  the  MiniSCSI  is  gener- 
ally able  to  keep  up.  At  the 
worst,  you'll  see  about  a  30- 
percent  reduction  in  speed. 

With  these  two  new  de- 
vices, even  If  you  have  a  lap- 
top or  slotless  desktop,  you 
can  still  participate  in  the  multi- 
media revolution.  D 


100        COMPUTE 


Take  Control  Of  The  Future 

Paragon  Softvuare  and  GDW  PRESEiyr  Games  On  The  CumiNG  Edge  of  Technology 


MegaTraveller  Z.  m  i  wiliohiy 


Quest  For  The  Ancients 


Uoth  featuring  scenarios 

written  by  Marc  Miller, 

Adventure  Gaming  Hall  of 

Fanner  and  creator  of  the 

Traveller  role-playing  system. 


l^ 


PARAGG^SOF^E 


Pased  on  the  role-playing  classic  from  Came  Designers' 
Workshop,  MegaTraveller  2:  Quest  For  The  Ancients  contains  state- 
of-the-art  innovations,  including  a  completely  re-designed,  icon- 
driven  interface,  combat  system  and  role-playing  engine. 

•  The  sequel  to  the  hit  MegaTraveller  1 :  The  Zhodani  Conspiracy 
with  over  1 00  of  named,  detailed  wodds  to  explore 

•  New  PAL  role-playing  engine  lets  you  control  one  character  v^'hile 
commanding  four  others;  advanced  character  generator 
guarantees  variety  with  each  game 

•  Weapons  and  starship  classes  of  all 
kinds;  a  dazzling  array  of  characters  with 
whom  to  interact 

Your  mission:  save  a  work!  threatened  by 
a  mysterious  artifact 
built  by  the  Ancients, 
a  legendary  super- 
race  thought  dead  for 
300,000  years. 


Iwilight:  2000  places  you 
in  the  aftermath  of  World  War  111,  travelling 
through  terrain  devastated  by  high-tech 
weaponry  and  nuclear  radiation. 

•  Create  your  character  with  the  skills 
and  abilities  you  want 

•  Command  three  other  party  members 
who  respond  to  your  orders  based  on 
ffte/r  personalities  and  objectives 

•  State-of-the-art  graphics  include  3-D 
simulation  and  2-D  scaled  overhead 
sequences 

•  Hundreds  of  weapons  and  vehicles 
make  each  encounter  unique 

Your  mission:  rebuild  and  defend  the  city 
of  Krakow,  Poland  against  an  onslaught  of 
marauders  and  military  madmen  determined 
to  win  a  war  the  world  lost. 


1  IBM  screens  shown. 
J  Actual  scre6ns  may  vary. 

PARAGON  SOFmARE 

Marketed  by  MicroProse  Software,  Inc. 

For  IBM-PC/Tandy/compatibles.  Can't  find  these  games?  Call  1  -800-879-PLAY  for  prices  and  ordering  information. 

©  1991  Paragon  Software  and  Game  Designers'  Workshop. 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  110 


'_r'r'^  -r  ■»  '  '  -^  J^  J'-  ^  -r  ^  -f   ^^   j»^^v^^^  .gz^ 


rr^^^-f*  ^^^  jt  r  f  j^  ^J-  J   J  J  J»-  ^  ^^^■^^■^n' 


The  greatest  hero  for  the  Hyborean  Age  was  a  fierce 
barbarian  born  of  the  harsh  northlands, 

CONAN  THE  CIMMERIAN 


ou  have  heard  the  tales  of  Conan's  adventures.  Only 
now  will  you  have  the  opportunity  to  live  the  life  of 
this  fierce  barbarian  from  the  land  of  Hyborea. 
Our  odyssey  begins  with  murder  most  foul.  When 
Conan's  village  is  massacred  by  the  ravening  hordes  of  Tholh 
Amon,  high  priest  of  the  vile  cult  of  Set,  Conan  vows  to  avenge 
the  death  of  his  family  and  friends. 
In  your  search  for  vengeance,  you  as  Conan,  will  explore 
Hyborea  to  seek  out  its  hidden  secrets  and  learn  of  its  powers. 
Visit  over  200  locations  -  taverns  and  inns,  crypts  and 
dungeons,  temples  and  tombs,  lavish  homes  and  poor  hovels  - 
to  learn  the  mysteries  of  Hyborea's  sorceries  to  help  Conan 
overcome  its  many  natural  and  supernatural  perils. 
Only  with  luck,  courage  and  constant  struggle  will  Conan  have 
the  chance  to  force  a  reckoning  with  the  powerful  Tholh  Amon. 


i^ids^J^AMoLA^^l 


AVAILABLE  FOR  THE  IBM  AND  AMIGA  THIS  SUMMER. 
SL=CGESTED  RETAIL  -  S49.99 

T.M  and  C  I99I  Conan  Propcnitt  Inc. 

CovcT  illuslratian  ©  1990  Borw  X'allcjo. 

©1991  Virgin  Games.  Inc.  All  righls  rrwn'cd. 

Virgin^  is  a  reglslercd  ll^dcmjrk  of  Virgin  Enterprises,  Ltd. 

Virgin  Games,  Inc.  18061  Eilch  Ave..  Ininc.  CalKoriiia  92714 


t'^  J  y  J  J  JJJ  yj- 


rjr^^  J-Jjj'jjjjjj^j^jyj/  jjjjj  j  i.i  1 1 1 1  in  1 1  , 


f  ^  ^.^  ^  -^  ^    ^    ■r'j'    ^    ^  -^    -y^^v   ^-?--y7a 


n  Spirit  of  Excalibur,  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table 
fought  to  defend  medieval  Britain  from  the  evil 
sorceress,  Morgan  Le  Fay.  Morgan,  dabbling  in  dark 
arts  beyond  even  her  ability  to  control,  had  summoned 
a  great  Lord  of  Demons,  the  Shadowmaster. 

With  Morgan's  death,  the  Shadowmaster  was  freed  to  work  his 
evil  will  against  the  unprepared  folk  of  Britain.  Striking  in  the 
night,  he  imprisoned  the  King  with  a  spell,  stole  the  greatest 
treasures  of  the  realm  and  kidnapped  Nineve,  the  court 
enchantress.  With  the  loss  of  the  sword  Excalibur  and  the  newly 
recovered  Holy  Grail,  Britain  begins  to  sicken  and  die.  The 
Shadowmaster  must  be  stopped! 

Command  knights  and  whatever  followers  they  are  able  to 
recruit  to  track  the  Shadowmaster  through  hazardous,  beautiful 
and  mysterious  medieval  Spain.  Explore  the  hundreds  of  villages 
and  cities,  fortresses  and  castles,  dungeons  and  palaces  and  all 
the  secret  places  where  the  Shadovraiaster  may  dwell. 

Seek  what  aid  you  can  as  you  acquire  and  learn  the  use  of  the 
sorceries  of  Moorish  Spain,  for  only  with  the  aid  of 
enchantments  and  the  loyalty  of  strong  allies  will  you  stand 
a  chance  of  ridding  the  world  of  the  demonic  Shadowmaster 
once  and  for  all. 


I 
i 


AVAILABLE  FOR  THE  IBM,  AMIGA,  ATARI  ST  AND  MAC  THIS  SUMMER. 
SUGGESTED  RETAIL -S49.99 

Developed  by  S^rrgi^iic  ^ftware. 

©  1991  Virgin  Game*,  tnc. 

VtrginSlsittglsicrcdiraclcmirkal:  Virgm  Enterprise,  Lid. 

Vtrigcanctf  of  Einilibur  Is  a  inidcmark  of  Virgin  Games,  Inc. 

VirginGamcs,  Inc.  IH06I  ImicIi  Ave.,  Irvine,  CaUrotnia  927M 


y,j  j-j.j.y  yj-j^j*v  J,j-^JJJJ3  3>'j  J   f  j  j  j  jj^ 


Circle  Rud«r  S«rvic«  Number  176 


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UHipiffllllilli 

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BR£  YOU  TOUGH  ENOUGH  TO  TAKE  ON  THE 
21st  CENTURY  AND  SAVE  MANKIND  FROM 
HIS  UNTIMELY  DESTRUCTION  BY 
A  GENETICALLY  ENGINEERED 

WAR  MACHINE?!? 

Talk  about  your  work-related  stress!  As  a  ZODIAC 
special  agent,  your  job  is  to  crack  the  complex 
security  systems  of  the  Universal  Cybernetics 
Corporation  and  track  down  the  mutant  robot  they 
have  designed  as  the  ultimate  killing  machine. 

You'll  arm  yourself  with  a  whole  arsenal  of 
weapons  -  everything  from  hologram  projectors  to 
special  vision  enhancement  visors  to  thermal 
infra-red  image  intensifiers.  If  all  else  fails  - 
you'll  have  to  rely  on  your  own  psychic  powers! 
FEATURES  INCLUDE:  *|i|^j^^J[m|4)^ 

■  16-level  3-dimensional  environment  complete 
with  fast,  smooth  scrolling 

■  Realistic  action  control  of  six  characters:  2  male, 
2  female  and  2  droid 

■  360  degree  vision 

a  Environmental  sound  effects 

"Tension  and  unease,  with  danger  lurking  around 
every  comer....  This  Number  One  European  Hit 
will  keep  you  on  your  toes  and  coming  back. ,.  ^ 
for  more." 


UWHWnU 


iillAtliiilll^ 


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l^fi^M4.H 


&VAILSBLE  FOR 

TBE  IBM ,  IMIG  A  AND  AT5RI  ST  THIS  SVMMEST 
SUGGESTED  RTTAIL  -  S49.99 

TM  and  ©  1991  Tirgin  Games,  Inc.  and  Cone  Deitgn. 

All  lights  reierved. 

Cocporatioii  &  Tiigiu®  axe  nglitered  Iraduaaiks  ot 

Virgin  Eateipmes,  Ltd. 

Tiigln  Games,  Inc.  18061  Fitch  An.,  Irriae,  Califunia  92114 


CI 


\'WtlilUBl 


mm 


© 


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The  space  flight  sixnulator  to  end  all 
simulators,  SHUTTLE  is  the  most  accurate 
and  comprehensive  simulation  of  NASA's 
Space  Shuttle  ever  produced  for  the  home 

computer. 

With  the  aid  of  Mission  Control,  you  will  master 
such  challenges  as  deploying  and  repairing 
satellites,  launching  spy  satellites,  maneuvering 
your  craft  in  zero  gravity,  attaining  the  correct  re- 
entry trajectory,  and  pulling  off  complicated 
landings. 

Advanced  polygon  and  elliptical  graphics,  along 
with  actual  land  and  star  maps  were  used  to  create 
the  breathtaking  3D  panoramas  of  the  Orbiter  and 
its  environment,  which  can  be  viewed  from  any 
angle  at  any  time. 

Other  features  include: 

■  Authentic  control  panel  display 

■  Detailed  comprehensive  training  and  reference 

manual 

■  Numerous  training,  scientific  and  "Star  Wars" 
(SDI)  Missions 

■  Multiple  help  levels  &om  "novice"  to  "veteran" 

■  Various  launch  and  lajiding  sites 

■  Orchestral  q[uaUty  music 
Foldrout  Shuttle  flight  deck  postei 


U 


AT2ILXBLEF0R 

THE  IBM,  SMtGi.  BSD  AXJUil  ST  L&TE  SUMMER. 

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^-.^  JldLJ^™  aod  Rslaad™  lotind  boards  inpputed  on  IBM 
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Virgin  Enierpilies,  Ltd. 
Virgin  Gsmes,  Inc.  1806 1  ritch  five, ,  bvise,  Califoniia  92714 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  179 


III. 


ENTERTAINMENT 


COMPUTE  CHOICE.  Prove  your 
right  to  the  skies  by  flying  the  latest 
Yeager  flight  simulator 

Denny  Atkin 


CHUCK  YEAGER'S 
AIR  COMBAT 

"Bandit  on  your  six!  Break!" 
the  navigator  yelled  from  the 
rear  seat.  As  tracers  sinot  past 
the  cockpit  window,  I  did  a  vec- 
tor fol!  and  pulled  away  from 
the  attacker.  !  leveled  out  my 
F-4E  Phantom,  wondering  if 
every  raid  against  the  Viet- 
cong  would  see  this  much  ac- 
tion. I'd  just  taken  damage 
from  the  f\/liG'21  I  shot  down 
over  Hanoi,  and  now  I  had  to 
deal  with  more  bogeys? 

I  scanned  the  horizon  look- 
ing for  the  enemy  aircraft.  I 
spotted  him,  locked  on  a  Side- 
winder heat  seeker,  and 
moved  in  for  the  kill.  Wait, 
there  was  something  strange 
about  this  plane.  It  appeared 
to  be  ...  a  piston-engined 
WWII  fighter!  "That's  a  Focke- 
Wulf  190,"  my  navigator  ex- 
claimed incredulously,  I 
glanced  around  .  .  .  three,  no 
four  FW-190  fighters  and  a  for- 
mation of  Me-262s,  the  first  Ger- 
man jet  fighters! 

Humming  the  "Twilight 
Zone"  theme,  I  closed  in  on 
the  bogey  and  let  go  of  the  Si- 
dewinder; it  shot  right  past 
him.  I  guess  a  heat  seeker 
isn't  the  best  weapon  to  use 
against  an  old  prop  job.  !  did 
a  low  yo-yo  to  reposition  when 
suddenly  a  group  of  tracers 
ripped  into  my  wing.  Looking 
over,  I  saw  an  Me-163  rocket 
plane!  I  jinked  to  the  left  and 
lit  into  him  with  my  20-mm  Gat- 
ling  gun.  He  blew  up  with  a 
spectacular  explosion.  Survey- 
ing my  plane,  I  realized  I'd  tak- 
en some  pretty  heavy  dam- 
age. One  nice  thing  about 
WWII  planes — they  were  pret- 
ty slow  compared  to  my  Phan- 
tom. I  lit  the  afterburners  and 
headed  for  home  with  growing 
appreciation  of  antique  war- 


planes. 
Chuck 
Yeager 's 
Air  Com- 
bat gives 
me  a  new  re- 
spect for  the 
programming 
talent  of  Brent  Iv- 
erson.  (And  he 
wasn't  doing  too  bad- 
ly in  my  book  anyway, 
having  created  the  PC 
version  of  DeluxePaint.) 
When  I  saw  the  spec  sheet  for 
this  program,  I  thought  it 
might  be  a  fun  arcade  game, 
but  I  didn't  believe  there  was 
any  way  a  program  could  re- 
alistioatly  simulate  aircraft 
from  three  different  wars  with- 
out making  any  compromises. 
I  was  wrong.  The  original  Yea- 
ger simuiation,  Chuck  Yea- 
ger's  Advanced  Flight  Trainer, 
is  one  of  the  best-selling  enter- 
tainment programs  for  the  PC. 
This  program  lives  up  to  its 
predecessor's  flight-model  re- 
alism and  surpasses  it  in 
speed,  sound,  and  graphics 
quality.  And  it  provides  much 
more  challenging  gameplay 

Yeager  offers  three  game- 
play  options.  You  can  choose 
to  fly  a  historic  mission  over 
World  War  II  Europe,  Korea,  or 
Vietnam;  create  your  own  mis- 
sion; or  test-fly  a  plane.  Fans 
of  historical  air  combat  will  en- 
joy the  first  option,  which  al- 
lows you  to  fly  16  accurate  air- 
combat  missions  over  Korea 
and  17  each  over  Europe  and 


Vietnam.  The  Create  Mission 
option  allows  you  to  design 
your  own  combat  scenario,  ei- 
ther a  realistic  encounter  be- 
tween planes  of  the  same  era 
or  a  fantasy  combat  between 
aircraft  of  different  eras.  Test 
Flight  lets  you  simply  take  to 
the  skies  in  your  choice  of  air- 
craft and  practice  your  flying 
skills  without  having  to  worry 
about  enemy  aircraft. 

The  program  simulates  a  to- 
tal of  17  different  aircraft 
types.  You  can  fly  6  of  these 
models,  and  enemy  aircraft 
can  be  any  of  the  17.  The 
planes  available  from  World 
War  II  are  the  North  American 
P-51 D  f^'lustang  and  the  Focke- 
Wulf  190A-8;  from  Korea,  the 
North  American  F-86E  and  the 
fvlikoyan-Gurevich  MiG-15  Fag- 
ot; and  from  Vietnam,  the 
iVlcDonnell  Douglas  F-4E  Phan- 
tom II  and  the  fvlikoyan-Gure- 
vich rvliG-21MFFishbed.  Oth- 
er planes  featured  in  the  sim- 
ulation, which  you  may  have  to 
defend  as  allies  or  face  as  en- 
emies, are  the  P-47DThunder- 


106        COMPUTE 


bolt,  the  Messerschmitt  Me- 
109E,  the  Me-110  twin-prop 
fighter,  the  Me-163  rocket 
plane,  the  Me-262  jet,  the  B- 
17  Flying  Fortress,  the  B-29  Su- 
perfortress, the  Yakelov  Yak- 
9,  the  MiG-17F  Fresco,  the  F- 
105D  Thunderchlef,  and  the  B- 
52  Stratofortress  (known  as 
the  BUFF  to  its  pilots.) 

As  you'd  expect  from  a  sim- 
ulation bearing  the  Yeager 
name,  each  of  these  planes  is 
simulated  very  accurately- 
When  you  choose  which 
plane  youYe  going  to  fly,  you 
aren't  forced  to  use  a  generic 
cockpit;  the  program  d'Splays 
an  instrument  panel  accurate 
to  that  type  of  plane.  The 
more  modern  the  plane  you're 
flying,  the  more  sophisticated 
the  instrument  panel.  Each 
plane  is  realistic  from  a  perform- 
ance standpoint  as  well.  For  in- 
stance, the  Me-1 63  Komet  rock- 
et plane  will  run  out  of  fuel  af- 
ter a  few  minutes  of  combat 
and  have  to  glide  back  to 
base,  making  it  a  sitting  duck, 
just  like  the  actual  aircraft. 
You'll  find  that  different  fight- 
ers have  different  climb  rates, 
turning  radii,  and  maximum  al- 
titudes. No  more  of  the  "every 
plane  flies  about  the  same"  syn- 
drome you've  encountered  in 
too  many  other  simulations.  If 
you're  used  to  less  realistic  sim- 
ulators, you  miight  find  yourself 
in  trouble  after  trying  to  do  ma- 
neuvers that  aren' t  actually  pos- 
sible in  some  planes  at  certain 
altitudes. 

The  game  presents  you 
with  an  incredible  variety  of  his- 
torical missions.  Many  are  of 
the  fighter-escort  and  ground- 
attack  genres,  as  you'd  ex- 
pect, but  many  others  are 
unique  and  unexpected.  In  Ko- 
rea, for  instance,  one  mission 
puts  you  In  the  role  of  Lt.  Kim 
Sok  Ho,  the  North  Korean  pi- 
lot who  defected  with  his  MiG- 


15  in  order  to  collect  a 
$100,000  reward,  You've  got 
toavoid  both  Korean  and  Amer- 
ican pilots  in  that  scenario.  Oth- 
er scenarios  bring  their  own  sur- 
prises— you  may  spend  most 
of  your  time  in  what's  sup- 
posed to  be  a  ground-attack 
mission  engaging  in  air-to-air 
combat.  Make  sure  you  pay  at- 
tention to  the  mission's  goals, 
though.  I  shot  down  three  Ger- 
man planes  in  one  mission,  on- 
ly to  be  chided  by  General  Yea- 
ger for  not  destroying  enough 
ground  targets. 

General  Yeager  offers  help- 
ful hints  and  warnings  during 
combat.  If  you  seek  further  as- 
sistance, a  tutorial  videotape 
narrated  by  Yeager  is  availa- 
ble from  EA. 

Each  mission  stands  alone; 
the  program  doesn't  let  you  fly 
a  campaign  or  save  your  pilot 
to  disk  so  you  can  keep  a  run- 
ning total  of  your  kills. 

The  historical  missions  are 
thoroughly  enjoyable,  but  I 
had  the  most  fun  using  the  Cre- 
ate fvlission  option.  If  you've 
had  a  bad  day,  take  a  Vietnam- 
era  MiG-21  up  against  four  or 
five  WWII  8-17  Bombers— it's 
a  piece  of  cake.  If  you're  up 
for  a  challenge,  try  to  shoot 
down  a  Mach-2  F-4E  Phantom 
in  a  500-mph  P-51  Mustang,  It 
can  be  done,  but  it's  not  easy. 

The  game  has  a  nice  replay 
option.  You  can  pause  the  com- 
bat and  watch  what  just  hap- 
pened, or  you  can  save  the  en- 
tire mission  to  disk  and  watch 
it  later.  There  are  variable  play- 
back speeds,  and  you  can 
have  the  camera  follow  any  of 
the  aircraft. 

Yeager's  VGA  graphics  are 
beautiful.  Each  cockpit  is  a 
nicely  rendered  VGA  bitmap, 
while  the  world  and  other  air- 
craft are  done  using  fast  filled- 
polygon  graphics.  Down  to 
the  ejection  seat  and  canopy 


that  fall  away  from  your  plane 
after  you  punch  out,  Yeager 
misses  no  detail.  A  digitized 
Chuck  Yeager  voice  congrat- 
ulating you  or  chiding  you  af- 
ter each  mission  crowns  a  com- 
plement of  well-done  sound  ef- 
fects. One  truly  neat  feature  is 
that  the  game  will  actually  run 
under  Windowsor\  a  386SX  or 
higher  machine;  other  than  a 
scrambled  digitized  voice,  all 
features  work  fine  under  Win- 
dows  3.0.  With  realistic  flying 
characteristics,  fast-action 
combat,  an  infinite  variety  of 
possible  missions,  and  top- 
notch  graphics  and  sound,  it's 
hard  to  find  anything  to  com- 
plain about.  The  terrain  could 
be  a  little  more  detailed  and 
less  flat,  and  it  would  be  nice 
if  you  could  keep  a  running  to- 
tal of  your  pilot's  kills.  Even  with- 
out these  features,  though. 
Chuck  Yeager's  Air  Combat  is 
the  most  enjoyable  combat 
flight  simulator  I've  ever 
played,  □ 


IBM  PC  and 
compatibles,  640K 
RAM;  CGA,  EGA, 
MCGA,  VGA; 
supports  Ad  Lit), 
Sound  Blaster, 
Game  Blaster— 
S59.95 

ELECTRONIC  ARTS 
1820  Gateway  Dr. 
San  Mateo,  CA 

1415)  571-7171 


107 


GAMEPLAY 


Orson  Scott  Card 


Combat  ability. 

tactics,  and 

strategy— every 

step  along 

the  continuum  is 

imuortaat 

But  there's  another 

continuum, 

too . . .  alistraction 

versus 

simulation. 


ABSTRACT  WAR 
GAMES 

You  don't  have  to  approve  of 
war  to  enjoy  playing  war 
games,  Besides,  there  are  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  war  games. 
Some  are  combat  games — 
those  arcade  games  where 
you  kick  or  blast  your  way 
through  an  endless  onslaught 
of  enemies  in  order  to  reach  a 
higher  level  where  you  have  to 
kick  or  blast  your  way  through 
even  more  enemies.  Victory  de- 
pends on  the  reflexes  and 
skills  the  player  develops — by 
playing,  you  train  yourself  into 
a  perfect  "soldier"  for  that 
game. 

Some  war  games  are  stra- 
tegic, like  the  excellent  Com- 
mand H.Q.  (Microplay),  in 
which  you  play  on  a  large 
map,  manipulating  nations 


and  armies.  The  whole  war  is 
your  responsibility. 

Some  war  games  are  tacti- 
cal, a  sort  of  middle  ground  in 
which  you  maneuver  the  indi- 
vidual units  of  a  larger  force. 
Your  game  is  usually  a  single 
battle  consisting  of  many  en- 
gagements and  firefights. 
Your  units  may  be  as  large  as 
divisions  or  as  small  as  tanks 
or  individual  soldiers — but 
you,  as  the  player,  control 
many  of  them,  not  just  one  or 
two. 

The  boundaries  between 
these  kinds  of  war  games  are 
never  firmly  fixed.  Insofar  as  the 
Ultima  games  are  war  games, 
are  they  combat  games  be- 
cause you  control  the  individu- 
al combat  decisions  of  a  very 
small  team?  Or  tactical,  be- 
cause you  maneuver  and  con- 
trol several  players? 

Does  it  matter?  Well,  it 
does  if  you're  playing  war 
games  for  real.  When,  at  the 
Marine  University  in  Quantico, 
I  sat  in  on  a  war  game  session 
led  by  Captain  John  Schmitt 
(author  of  what  may  be  the 
most  concisely  brilliant  book 
of  strategy  ever  written),  it  re- 
ally mattered  whether  you 
thought  strategically  as  well  as 
tactically — because  someday 
v^hat  you  did  in  the  game 
might  show  up  on  the  battle- 
field. 

Likewise,  the  best  of  the  of- 
ficers playing  the  game  took  in- 
to account  the  Individual  abili- 
ties of  soldiers  in  their  made- 
up  squads.  "I'd  put  my  two 
best  marksmen  here  and 
have  them  move  very  slowly  in- 
to position  there  during  the 
night.  I  know  they  could  get 
there  because  I  trained  them 
to  do  it."  Combat  ability,  tac- 
tics, and  strategy — every  step 
along  the  continuum  is  impor- 
tant. 

But  there's  another  continu- 
um, too,  when  it  comes  to  war 
games:  abstraction  versus  sim- 
ulation. Chess,  for  instance,  is 
a    highly    abstracted    war 


game.  Sure,  we  speak  of 
"knights"  and  "castling,"  but 
there's  no  sense  in  which  our 
use  of  bishops  and  queens  re- 
flects real  warfare!  And  as  for 
moving  castles  .  .  .  well, 
enough  said. 

So  when  I  tell  you  that  Full 
Metal  Planet  (Infogrames, 
copyrighted  and  distributed  in 
the  U.S.  by  Data  East)  is  a  fair- 
ly abstract  tactical  game,  that 
doesn't  mean  that  it  isn't  a 
good  war  game.  It  does  mean 
that  you  won't  get  the  thrill  of 
kicking  your  way  through  a 
whole  bunch  of  enemies — com- 
bat is  only  scarcely  more  graph- 
ic than  seeing  one  piece  take 
another  in  chess.  Yet  you  get 
another  kind  of  thril! — the  ex- 
citement of  maneuvering  your 
forces  defensively  and  offen- 
sively against  very  tough  com- 
puter opponents  or  other  hu- 
man players,  under  a  very 
tight  time  limit  of  no  more  than 
25  moves. 

Unrealistic?  No,  just  ab- 
stract. The  graphics  are  gor- 
geous, somewhat  impression- 
istic and  yet  grittily  real.  It's  a 
bleak  alien  landscape,  where 
your  corporation  and  up  to 
four  computer  opponents  and 
three  other  humans  are  trying 
to  gather  as  much  ore  as  pos- 
sible, all  the  while  blasting  or 
capturing  the  other  corpora- 
tions' equipage  and  trying  to 
keep  its  men  from  doing  the 
same  to  you. 

The  rules  of  movement  are 
quite  abstract,  and  the  battles 
themselves  are  simple.  The 
playing  field  is  a  hex  grid  with 
a  sea  whose  unpredictable 
tides  can  drastically  alter  your 
movement  capability.  It 
sounds  simple,  but  the  compli- 
cations are  as  intricate  as 
chess. 

Whether  you  prefer  twitch 
games  or  games  like  Full  Met- 
al Planet  is  just  a  matter  of 
whether  you  want  your  reflex- 
es to  play  the  game  for  you  or 
you  sometimes  want  the 
game  to  reach  your  brain,   □ 


lOa        COMPUTE 


All  the  nranhics.  all  the  action,  all  the  stats/ 


SSI  sets  the  standard 
with  Tony  La  Russa's 
Ultimate  Baseball. 
When  the  premier 
manager  of  pro      / 
baseball  puts  his 
name  on  a  game, 
you  know  it  has  to 
be  the  very  best: 
State-of-the-art 
graphics  and  ultra 
realistic  action. 
Ballparks  with  differ- 
ent fence  distances, 
,     wind 
conditions 
and  turf 
surfaces. 
■       And  all  the 


i^<>tAj^?a^ 


'jj 


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Tony  La  Russa's  Ultimate 

Baseball  comes  with  the 

stats  of  yesteryears" 

legendary  super- 

—  stars.  You  can 

also  enter  the 

numbers  for  any 

player  on  any  pro 

team  —  or  even 

those  on  your 

local  feague. 

Choose  to  play 

^^^^^^      a  game  with  top- 

"''  "  ■  notch  arcade 

action,  or  let  the  computer 

play  through  a  162-game 

season  in  a 

few  hours! 


batting, 
14  fielding 
and  44 
pitching  stat 
categories! 
Sorted  any 
way  you  like. 
You  make 


the  call. 


WPM5  BUCSCSH07 


SPORTS.  iRiomim 

to  ORDER:  Visit  you;  retailer.      .4 

VISA/MC  orders,  call  1-800-245-4? 

Canada).  By  mail,  send  check  or  money  order  to 

Electronic  Arts.  RO.  Box  7530,  San  Mateo.  CA 

94403.  To  receive  SSI's  complete 

product  catalog,  send  si  .00 

to:  SSI.675Almanor  >«r|!jk«.  /•— 

Ave..  Suite  201.  ,.  -  JrX~' 

Sunnyvale.  ~-    -■       '>-:.-- 

CA  94086. 


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m  e  m  o  r  a 


The  Making  of  a  Com 


When  Access  Software  introduced  the 
award-winning  Mean  Streets  two  years 
ago,  its  exciting  movie  sequences 
were  state-of-the-art  technology.  Now, 
the  Access  geniuses  are  taking  game 
technology  another  quantum  leap  tor- 
ward  with  Martian  Memorandum. 

This  time,  in  what  is  rightfully  called 
full-motion  video,  Access  gives  us  mov- 
ie sequences  with  synchronized 
sound.  When  you  play  the  game,  the 
twelve  speaking  characters  talk  direct- 
ly to  you  as  you  conduct  your  inter- 
views, even  if  you  don't  have  a  sound 
board.  They  move  as  they  speak  and 
roll  their  eyes  with  disgust,  shrugging, 
laughing,  and  blazing  with  anger. 
They're  not  animated  cartoons  or  pho- 
tos with  dialog  boxes;  they're  people 
you  have  to  deal  with  to  get  anywhere 
in  the  game. 

You  won't  believe  your  eyes  and 
ears.  It's  a  breakthrough  that  parallels 
the  development  of  "talkies,"  when 
soundtracks  were  added  to  movies. 

But  aside  from  the  programming  art- 
istry that  represents  a  giant  step  for  the 
technology,  this  is  a  computer  game 
good  enough  to  deserve  being  the  first 
computer  talkie. 

Martian  Memorandum's  setting  is 
A.D.  2039.  You  take  the  role  of  Tex 
Murphy,  a  San  Francisco  gumshoe  in 
the  Sam  Spade  tradition  (complete 
with  the  trench  coat  and  1940-style 
theme  music),  who  is  hired  by  wealthy 

110        COMPUTE 


Marshall  Alexander  to  find  his  beautiful 
daughter,  Alexis,  who  is  missing  and 
may  have  been  abducted. 

The  faint  trail  eventually  leads 
through  her  boyfriend's  incredible 
South  American  jungle  fortress  to  the 
seedy  back  alleys  of  a  casino  district  on 
Mars.  As  you  meet  more  people  and  un- 
ravel the  web  of  intrigue,  you  find 
there  is  much  more  involved  than  just  a 
missing  heiress.  If  you  are  successful, 
you  may  save  humanity  from  self-de- 
struction. 

It's  a  gritty,  hard-boiled  private  eye 
yarn  in  a  futuristic,  science  fiction  set- 
ting. As  the  macho  hero,  you  mix  it  up 
with  mutant  villains,  sexy  secretaries, 
gamblers,  hired  muscle,  and  an  eclec- 
tic variety  ol  characters,  each  of  whom 
is  trying  in  his  or  her  own  way  to  influ- 
ence the  fate  of  the  universe. 

There's  also  a  healthy  dose  of  hu- 
mor, particularly  in  the  descriptions  of 
the  various  objects  you'll  examine  as 
you  search  for  clues. 

The  story  line  is  unusually  deep  for  a 
game.  The  game's  electronic  wizardry — 
after  the  awe  wears  off— allows  you  to 
get  caught  up  with  the  people,  their  mo- 
tivations, and  the  scope  of  the  problem 
you're  desperately  trying  to  solve. 

The  designers  weren't  content,  how- 
ever, with  presenting  this  richly  detailed 
story  in  graphics  and  sound  that  no  one 
else  can  match.  They  had  one  more  in- 
novation in  mind;  they  guarantee  you 


can  finish  the  game.  You'll  be  able  to  un- 
cover the  final  solution  without  a  hint 
book  and  without  frantic  phone  calls  to 
customer  service. 

How  can  they  guarantee  this? 
They've  developed  a  new  system  to 
give  you  context-sensitive  help  at  just 
the  level  you  want.  If  you  want  minor 
hints  at  the  tough  spots,  you  can  get 
them  onscreen.  But  if  you  aren't  playing 
for  the  thrill  of  outsmarting  the  program- 
mers, persist  in  asking  for  help,  and  the 
game  will  eventually  spell  out  for  you  ex- 
actly what  to  do. 

This  may  be  the  first  adventure/mys- 
tery game  some  of  us  have  ever  fin- 
ished. If  you  enjoy  simple  mysteries 
and  puzzles  but  have  given  up  on  ad- 
venture games  in  frustration  with  their 
seeming  impossibility,  you'll  want  to  try 
Martian  Memorandum.  You  only  have 
to  endure  as  much  frustration  as  you 
choose  to  accept. 

The  Making  of  Martian 
Nlemoranmim 

Like  its  predecessors,  Countdown  and 
Mean  Streets,  Martian  Memorandum  is 
the  product  of  a  talented  team  of  crea- 
tive technical  geniuses  hidden  away  in 
an  industrial  park  near  the  Salt  Lake 
City  International  Airport.  Although 
they're  unquestionably  brilliant  comput- 
er people,  they  work,  talk,  and  think 
more  like  moviemakers. 
Martian  Memorandum  is  story  and  con- 


mM 


um 


How  virtual 

can  it  get  before  it's 

real?  Access 

brings  together 

RealSound  and  live 

action  for  an 

unprecedented 

adventure  experience. 


cept  are  the  joint  creation  of  financial 
vice  president  Ciiris  Jones  and  program- 
mer Brent  Erickson.  Jones  directs  the 
game's  movie  sequences  and  acts  sev- 
eral parts. 

The  visuals  are  born  when  the  design- 
ers explain  the  story  to  their  artist,  who 
creates  a  storyboard  with  a  rough 
sketch  for  each  game  screen.  The  re- 
sults of  this  intensely  creative  process 
are  pinned  on  the  wall  of  a  long  hall- 
way, and  production  begins. 

Videotaping  is  much  like  a  standard 
movie  or  television  shoot,  with  makeup 
and  sound  people,  a  videographer  (cam- 
eraman), the  director,  and  actors  shoot- 
ing multiple  takes  directly  onto  video- 
tape. The  difference  is  one  additional 
person:  Erickson  lurks  in  the  back- 
ground, mentally  digitizing  the  scene 
and  fitting  it  into  his  program,  making 
sure  the  degree  of  detail,  motion,  and 
position  of  the  actors  will  work  within 
computer  memory  and  program  con- 
straints. 

Ninety-five  percent  of  what  you  see 
onscreen  in  Martian  Memorandum  is  dig- 
itized video  or  still  photos.  Every  move 
that  Tex  Murphy  and  the  other  charac- 
ters make  was  created  from  digitized  vid- 
eo of  actors.  The  derelict  train  in  the 
rail  yard  murder  scene  is  a  photo  of  an 
abandoned  string  of  rail  cars  a  few  hun- 
dred yards  from  the  Access  office.  Wher- 
ever the  appropriate  image  exists, 
they'll  find  a  way  to  capture  it  and  fit  it 


into  the  game. 

Like  moviemakers,  they  create  futur- 
istic sets  in  miniature.  After  lighting  the 
model  set  just  as  carefully  as  stage 
directors  light  a  sound  stage,  they 
videotape  it.  Jon  Clark,  a  multitalented 
artist  with  15  years  of  experience  in  thea- 
ter set  design,  creates  the  models  us- 
ing a  surprising  variety  of  toys,  balsa 
wood,  scraps  of  plastic  models,  wires, 
and  anything  eise  that  comes  to  hand. 
Jon  also  runs  the  studio's  professional 
sound  equipment. 

The  digitized  images  of  the  sets 
then  go  to  Doug  Vandegrift,  a  cartoon- 
ist with  a  theater  background  known  for 
his  work  on  "The  Muppet  Babies"  car- 
toon series.  Vandegrift's  PC  tool  chest 
lets  him  blend  in  other  images,  includ- 
ing his  own  drawings.  He  works  with 
the  lighting,  backgrounds,  and  whatev- 
er else  may  need  touch-up  in  the  origi- 
nal image. 

The  detailed  exterior  scene  of  the 
Martian  casino  row,  for  example,  start- 
ed as  a  colorful,  detailed  model  built  by 
Clark.  Vandegrift  blended  in  a  stark  Mar- 
tian mountainscape  background  and  ne- 
on signs  that  came  from  photos  of  Las 
Vegas  augmented  by  his  own  artwork. 
The  result  is  a  movie  scene  that  looks 
real  without  the  flat,  uniformly  colored 
and  lighted  look  of  a  cartoon  panel. 

The  live  action  sequences  and  char- 
acters that  talk  in  full-motion  video  ap- 
pear onscreen  in  three-  to  four-inch  win- 


By  Richard  O.  Mann 


3S5^: 


dows  over  the  scene's  set.  They  could 
do  full-screen  video,  but  it  takes  so 
much  disk  space  that  it  isn't  practical 
yet. 

In  fact,  the  real  technical  break- 
through allowing  full-motion  video  with 
sound  is  not  the  video  or  the  sound 
technology.  It's  fast  disk  decompres- 
sion. Full-motion  video  is  a  series  of 
frames  projected  on  the  screen,  just 
like  motion  pictures.  Each  frame  is 
stored  on  disk  and  draw/n  on  the 
screen  at  the  right  speed. 

Images  take  a  vast  amount  of  disk 
storage.  To  make  this  game  work, 
Erickson  invented  a  system  that  com- 
presses the  video  files  by  approximate- 
ly 87  percent  and  then  decompresses 
them  on  the  fly  in  a  fraction  of  a  sec- 
ond, sending  them  to  the  screen  as 
needed,  right  on  time,  frame  by  frame, 
synchronized  with  the  sound  files.  With- 
out the  lightning-fast  decompression 
routine,  this  game  could  not  exist. 

The  RealSound  technology  that 
gives  us  music  and  voice  through  ordi- 
nary PC  speakers  is  the  brainchild  of 
Steve  Witzel,  vice  president  of  market- 
ing at  Access.  It's  so  mature  and  solid 
at  this  point  that  it's  easy  to  record  the 
soundtrack  on  the  videotape  and  dig- 
itize it  using  the  proven  RealSound  util- 
ity program.  If  you  have  expensive 
fVllDI  sound  equipment,  the  soundtrack 


of  Martian  Memorandum  will  complete 
the  illusion  of  being  in  a  movie. 

All  of  these  diverse  elements  feed  in- 
to Erickson's  dimly  lit,  CD-sound-filled 
office,  where  the  master  programmer 
melds  them  together  into  a  finished 
product,  Since  the  game  was  created 
in  close  partnership  with  Jones  from 


Martian  Memorandum  is  your  ticket  to  an 
interplanetary  adventure. 

the  start,  Erickson  is  qualified  to  serve 
as  the  movie's  cutter  and  editor.  His 
job  is  a  lot  harder,  though,  because 
he's  also  writing  the  computer  code 
that  causes  everything  to  happen. 

An  Entertainment  Experience 

The  designers  of  Martian  Memoran- 
dum are  striving  to  make  it  more  than 
a  game;  they  see  it  as  an  entertain- 
ment experience.  The  intention  is  to 


make  the  player  identify  with  the  hero 
and  feel  surprise,  anger,  delight,  and 
tension  as  he  or  she  solves  the  mys- 
tery. The  only  concession  to  the  fact 
that  it's  a  computer  game  is  your  lim- 
ited ability  to  question  and  interact 
with  the  people  you  meet  in  the  game. 
At  each  step  along  the  way  you  are  giv- 
en three  to  five  possible  things  to  say 
in  these  conversations.  (Such  conver- 
sations may  go  on  for  ten  or  more  ex- 
changes; they  are  not  perfunctory  inter- 
views.) Sometimes  off-the-wall  ques- 
tions you'd  like  to  ask  aren't  among  the 
choices,  but  such  occasions  are  rare. 
As  games  become  more  realistic, 
merging  full-motion  animation  and  dig- 
itized sound,  the  gap  separating  real  ex- 
perience from  the  game  action  nar- 
rows. Martian  Memorandum  isn't  quite 
virtual  reality  yet,  but  it's  closer  to  it 
than  any  other  computer  game.        Q 


Martian  l\Aemorandum  S59.95 
ACCESS  SOFTWARE 
4910  W.  Amelia  Earhart  Dr. 
Salt  Lake  City,  UT  84116 
(800)  800-4880 
(801)359-2900 

Requires  VGA  and  hard  drive  with  ap- 
proximately 8fvlB  free.  Mouse  recom- 
mended. All  sound  boards  supported 
but  none  is  required. 


112        COMPUTE 


64/1 28  VIEW 


New  64  titles  were  scarce  at  the 
Consumer  Electronics  Show,  but  there's 
still  some  fun  coming  our  way. 

Tom  Netsel 


The  1991  International 
Summer  Consumer  Elec- 
tronics Show  closed  its 
doors  recently  in  Chica- 
go after  55,629  attendees 
logged  many  extra  miles  on 
their  Nike  and  Reebok  Fre- 
quent Hiker  plans.  It  took  a 
lot  of  shoe  leather  to  visit 
each  of  the  1,019  exhibits 
that  filled  a  half-million 
square  feet  of  exhibit 
space,  and  finding  new  64  ti- 
tles in  this  electronic  mid- 
way was  something  of  a  chal- 
lenge. 

There  were  plenty  of  PCs 
and  Amigas  displaying  new 
software,  but  there  were  no 
64s,  Many  companies  say 
they  no  longer  get  enough  re- 
turn on  their  investment  to 
continue  producing  prod- 
ucts for  the  64. 

After  much  asking,  prob- 
ing, and  poking  around,  how- 
ever, I  did  manage  to  locate 
some  new  products.  Rea- 
dySoft  says  its  multidisk 
Wrath  of  the  Demon  should 
be  out  in  September,  but 
look  for  it  on  cartridge,  too. 
"With  the  introduction  of  the 
Commodore  Game  Console 
in  England,  cartridge 
games  developed  for  that 
system  will  work  just  fine  on 
a  64,"  says  ReadySoft  Sen- 
ior Vice  President  Elizabeth 
Arnold. 

This  state-of-the-art 
game  contains  more  than 
3MB  of  graphics  data,  600 
screens  of  action,  and  1400 
frames  of  animation.  Look 
for  more  cartridges  and 
disks  coming  from  the  U.K., 
since  ReadySoft  has  joined 
Empire  Software  and  will  be 
importing  some  of  its  prod- 
ucts. Another  title  due  out  in 
late  fall  is  Guy  Spy. 

At  Electronic  Arts,  affiliat- 
ed labels  SSI  and  Mindcraft 
have    new    offerings    that 


should  be  exciting.  Step  up 
to  the  plate  with  Strategic 
Simulations'  Ultimate  Base- 
ball. That's  the  working  title, 
but  whatever  it's  called,  this 
simulation  lets  you  play  man- 
age, or  watch  one  game  or 
a  whole  162-game  season. 

War  game  fans  haven't 
been  forgotten.  Look  for  an 
SSI  war  game  coming  soon. 
It's  called  Medieval  Lords. 

Gateway  to  the  Savage 
Frontier  is  the  first  of  a  new 
AD  &  D  series  from  SSI.  It 
takes  place  in  a  mysterious 
territory  in  the  world  of  Forgot- 
ten Realms.  Starting  in  the 
town  of  Yarter,  venture  over 
a  vast  wilderness  on  a 
quest  for  four  magical  statu- 
ettes. 

Later  this  year,  look  for 
The  Magic  Candle,  Vol.  2 
from  Mindcraft.  In  this  se- 
quel explore  the  dreaded 
realm  of  Gurtex  in  search  of 
the  dark  secrets  of  black  can- 
dles. A  new  user  interface 
lets  you  capture  conversa- 
tions, eliminating  the  need 
for  constant  note  taking.  As- 
tound friend  and  foe  with 
new  spells,  such  as  Glam- 
our, Courage,  and  Terrify. 

The  Electronic  Zoo  is  bun- 
dling 20  popular  games 
from  Great  Britain  and  send- 
ing them  to  the  U.S.  as  Star 
Collection.  These  hits 
should  be  available  now. 

Konami  is  another  compa- 
ny supporting  the  64— and 
now  one  of  the  more  active 
ones.  Over  the  next  few 
months,  look  for  five  new 
games  based  on  popular 
movies  and  hit  television  pro- 
grams. Look  for  such  excit- 
ing titles  as  Bart  Simpson's 
Adventure,  Simpsons'  Ar- 
cade Game,  Teenage  Mu- 
tant Ninja  Turtles:  The  Ar- 
cade Game,  Back  to  the  Fu- 
ture III,  and  Predator  2.      □ 


CONTENTS 


64/128  VIEW  G-1 

The  1991  Summer  CES  had  little  for  the  64,  but  new 
products  are  heading  our  way.  By  Tom  Netsel. 

COMMODORE  CLIPS  G-2 

Gazette  goes  online  with  QuantumLink,  Commodore 
earnings  are  up,  and  more.  By  Tom  Netsel. 

A  GUIDE  TO  COMMODORE 

USER  GROUPS  (PART  II)  G-4 

User  group  listings  for  Nevada-Wyoming  and  around 
the  world.  By  Kandi  Sykes  and  Dana  Stoll. 


REVIEWS 


G-10 


Sac/c  to  the  Future  tl,  Fastfingers,  Nightbreed,  and 
Power  Drift. 


FEEDBACK 

Questions  and  answers. 


G-1 6 


GEOS  G-1 9 

GEOS  telecommunicating.  By  Steve  Vander  Ark. 


MACHINE  LANGUAGE 

Use  binary  fractions.  By  Jim  Butterfield. 


G-20 


BEGINNER  BASIC  G-21 

Crashproof  your  programs.  By  Larry  Cotton. 

PROGRAMMER'S  PAGE  G-22 

Programming  tips  for  the  64.  By  Randy  Thompson. 

DIVERSIONS  G^ 

Has  the  robot  revolution  started?  By  Fred  D'Ignazio. 


PROGRAMS 

Spanish  Vocabulary  Quiz 

SpeedSwap 

Credit  Control 

Plotter 

Showdown 

Medium  Density  Driver 

RapldFormat  128 

MLX 


G-25 

G-25 

G-28 
G-29 
G-31 
G-32 
G-34 
G-35 
G-38 


G-1 


COMMODORE  CLIPS 


Tom  Netsel 


"Gazette 

Gallery"  presents 

Lutanlst, 

by  Jack  {DqgJM) 

Modjallal  of 

Encino,  Calllornia, 

as  this 

disk's  Picture  of 

the  moniti. 


GAZETTE  GALLERY 

Each  month  Gazette  D/s/<  fea- 
tures a  collection  of  the  best 
64/128  artwork  submitted  by 
our  readers.  We  pay  $50  for 
each  piece  of  art  we  accept 
for  "Gazette  Gallery"  and  an  ex- 
tra $50  for  the  one  selected  as 
Picture  of  the  Month  and  fea- 
tured on  this  page.  To  submit 
your  original  artistic  creations, 
send  them  to  Gazette  Gallery 
GOfvlPUTE  Publications,  324 
West  Wendover  Avenue, 
Suite  200,  Greensboro,  North 
Carolina  27408. 

Gazette  Goes  Online 

Two  of  the  biggest  names  in 
the  Commodore  world  are  join- 
ing forces  to  offer  64  and  128 
users  an  exciting  new  dimen- 
sion to  their  computing  activi- 
ties. COMPUTE'S  Gazette  will 
soon  be  online  at  Quantum- 
Link  (8619  Westwood  Center 
Drive,  Vienna,  Virginia  22180; 
800-827-8444). 

You've  read  Gazette  for 
years;  soon  you  can  access 
Gazette  electronically  on  the 
only  Commodore-specific  on- 
line service.  With  your  comput- 


er, modem,  and  Q-Link's  free 
terminal  software,  you'll  be 
able  to  access  many  of  your  fa- 
vorite Gazette  features. 
Check  Gazette  and  Q-Link  as 
details  become  available 
about  our  upcoming  debut. 

Check  This  Out 

Sparks  Electronics  (P.O.  Box 
0475,  St.  Joseph,  Missouri 
64504-0475)  has  released 
S.E.C-  Check  Register  128 
($16)  for  the  128  in  80-col- 
umn  mode.  Designed  to  man- 
age personal  or  small  busi- 
ness checking  accounts, 
S.E.C.  Check  Register  can 
contain  up  to  750  entries. 

Special  emphasis  is  given 
to  data  entry,  recurring  pay- 
ees, check  printing,  and  print- 
ing of  register  data.  Recurring 
payee  files  can  contain  up  to 
54  names  and  addresses,  but 
users  can  load  others  into  the 
current  register  for  an  unlimit- 
ed number  of  payees. 

Earnings  Up  at  Commoilore 

Commodore  International  Lim- 
ited reported  $10.6  million  in 
income  on  sales  of  $246.3  mil- 
lion for  the  third  fiscal  quarter 
of  1991,  which  ended  March 
31.  This  represents  a  substan- 
tial increase  in  earnings  and 
a  16-percent  increase  in 
sales  compared  to  the  year- 
ago  quarter.  An  extraordinary 
charge  of  $9.2  million  relating 
to  a  previously  announced 
court  settlement  of  litigation 
was  recorded  in  the  quarter, 
resulting  in  net  income  of 
$1.4  million. 

For  the  nine  months  that 
ended  March  31,  1991,  in- 
come increased  tenfold  to 
$54.1  million  compared  with 
$5.0  million  in  the  prior  year. 
Sales  increased  21  percent  to 
$830.7  million,  compared 
with  $689.2  million  in  the  year- 
ago  period.  Net  income  for 
the  nine  months  increased  nin- 
efold to  $44.9  million,  or 
$1.37  per  share. 

Every  product  line  contribut- 


ed to  revenue  growth  in  the 
quarter,  Unit  sales  of  Amiga 
computers  increased  30  per- 
cent, while  the  64  product 
line  registered  unit  growth  of 
48  percent,  largely  due  to  ex- 
panded sales  in  new  markets. 

The  Krynn  Epic  Continues 

Strategic  Simulations  announc- 
es the  release  of  Death 
Knights  of  Krynn  ($39.95)  for 
the  64.  (SSI  products  are  dis- 
tributed by  Electronic  Arts, 
1820  Gateway  Drive,  San 
Mateo,  California  94404.) 
This  game  is  the  sequel  to  the 
popular  Advanced  Dungeons 
&  Dragons  fantasy  role-play- 
ing game  Champions  of 
Krynn. 

Death  Knights  of  Krynn  be- 
gins a  year  after  the  conclu- 
sion of  Champions  of  Krynn. 
At  a  victory  party  on  the  anni- 
versary of  tfie  evil  force's  de- 
feat, the  celebration  is  inter- 
rupted by  an  unwelcome  par- 
ty crasher.  The  undead  Sir 
Karl  sweeps  in  on  a  Death 
Dragon  and  steals  a  revered 
Dragonlance.  The  adventure 
begins  as  the  champions  set 
out  to  track  Sir  Karl  and  recov- 
er the  stolen  item. 

Your  favorite  characters 
from  Champions  of  Krynn  can 
be  imported  to  Death  Knights 
of  Krynn,  along  with  their  ac- 
cumulated items  and  wealth. 
This  is  a  new  feature  not  pre- 
viously offered  in  AD  &  D  fan- 
tasy role-playing  games. 

Big  Al  and  Pals 

Return  to  Chicago's  golden 
age  of  gangsters  and  take  on 
the  Mob  in  The  Untouchables 
($14.95)  from  Ocean  of  Amer- 
ica (distributed  by  Electronic 
Arts,  1820  Gateway  Drive, 
San  Mateo,  California  94404). 
Guide  Eliot  Ness's  band  of 
mob-busters  through  five  lev- 
els of  arcade  action:  the  Ware- 
house Bust,  the  Border  Raid, 
the  Alley  Shootouts,  the  Rail- 
way Station  Confrontation, 
and  the  Rooftop  Duels.        □ 


G-2        COMPUTE 


FOR  ORDERS  AND    ^     ng%g%    -^Cil    f^CflC 
USA  &SaM  CALL  1  "0UU'/UU~DU65 

Order  Hours:  Mon-Thun,  9am-7pi«/fri,  9omSpm/ClOS[D  Soi/OPtH  5(.n,9:30-4{ET) 


wommommm 


WE  CAN  RKOHFIGUREAHYOf  OUR  COUPUm  PACKAGES  TO  YOUR 
SPECIflCATlONS.  CAUFORDETAIISI 

WE  mm  CORPORAU  &  [DUCATIONAL  CUSTOMERS  -  DtSCOUHTS  FOR 
QUANTITY  ORDERS  -  RUSH,  2ND  DAY  A  NEXT  DAY  AIR  SERVICE  AVAIIASLE} 


.°<!ffiKu  (718)6920790 

MoniiGOMfRv  mm:  majl  order  depi. 

as  34U1  ST.,  SEPT.  A,  BROOKLVN,  N.I.  1 1Z32 
FAX  #7186923372  /  TELEX  422132  MGRANT 

RETAIL  OUTLET  PENN  STAnON,  MAIIU  CONCOURSE 

(Beneath  Madisen  Sq.  Garden)  NYC,  m  lOOOI 

store  Hrs:  MON-IHURS  9!30-7/fRI  8:30-5/tlOSED  SAI/OPEH  JUN  9S30-7 

FOR  CUSTOMER  SERVICE  OR  ORDER  STATUS  CAll:  (718)  692-1 148 

CUSTOMER  SERVICE  HOURS:  MON-THURS  9am  Spm/rRI  9ilm-4pm/SUN  10ani-4um 


64€ 

HAcur 

IN 


C^  Commodore 


to 

Includes: 
Quantum  Link  Software 


v^yr?^ 


I  AVE   BIG  $$$ 

IWHEN  YOU  BUY  ONE  OF  OUR  ALL  IN  OnTpACKAGES 


64C 

TEST  PILOT 

PACKAGE 

•  Commodore  64C 
Computer 

•  Commodore  1541 

Disk  Drive 

•  Joystick 

•  Quantum  Link 

Software 


G  SOFTWARE 
I  PACKAGES  INCLUDED 


:d; 


I  Advanced  Tactcal  Fighter 

>  Inf t/alor  U  ■  Harrier        I 
■  Crazy  Cars  ■  Tomohawfc^ 

<289 


COMMODORE 

64C 
COMPLETE 
PACKAGE 

•  Commodore  64C 
Computer 

•  Commodore  1541 
Disk  Drive 

•  80  Column  Printer 

•  12"  Monitor 

•  Quantum  Link 
Software 

^359 


COMMODORE 

64C 

COLOR 

PACKAGE 

•  Commodore  64C 

Computer 
•Commodore  1541 
Disk  Drive 

•  80  Column  Printer 

•  Color  fvlonUor 

•  Quantum  Link 
Software 


PERIPHERALS  FOR  COMMODORE^ 


COMMODORE  154119 
DISK  DRIVE 


n59 


COIUMODOHE  1S71 
DISK  DRIVE 


CALL 


1750  Clone  RAM  EKpansion $169   Micro  C-128  Power  Supply $59.95 

Aprolek  2400  Satd  Madem  lor  6«1 28....$99.95 


Super  SnapshrM  5.0 $59.95 

Xelec  S.  Graphi«  Jr.  Interlace......... J29.B5 

Xelec  S.  Graphix  Sr.  Interlace $49.95 


Cardco  G-Wiz  Interlace Si>9.95 

Commoeiore  1650  Modem SU.95 

64,  64C  Power  Supply $29.95 

Ejicelleraior  Plus  FS  Dl  I  Power  Supply.  ...$1 9.95 

IV  OTHER  ACCESSORIES  FOR  YOUR  COMMODORE  COMPUTER  AVAIUBLE 


C*  Commodore* 


1084 
MONITOR 


m 


COMMOOOat 

AMIG 

500 


i—  Special  Purchase  BlowoutsI 

MONOCHROME 
COMPOSITE 
MONITORS 

(RECONDITIONED) 

$3995 


r 


so  COL.  THERMfSL 

PRINTER  INCLUDES 
COMMODORE  INTERFACE 


SPECIAU 

S  Free  Games 
with  Purchase! 


M 


MfiGNffVOX 

13  COLOR/ 

COMPOSITE/RGB 

MONITOR 

W/SOUND!  (RECONDITIONED) 
$14995 


COMMODORE  84/128  SOFTWARE 


Btj  Bkjs  Rsader S31.00  MavarickvS.0 529,00 

Canran    Time $26.00  ML  Bassball  II  Enhan. $27.00 

Caittwn    USA. 529.00  Newsroom. S14.00 

Carmen   VforW $25,00  North  &  South. $20.00 

Death  KnighlB  Kryinn $40.00  Paperdp     III $40.00 

Elemerrtaiy  Gni  BuWing $25.00  Pccliel    Writef. $19,00 

G(M5    Piiilsh $3100  Pocke!  Writer  II $34,00 

GEOS     w2.0 $40.00  Pnnt  Master  Plis. $24,00 

Jr.  High  Grade  Buikter $19.00  Print    Shop „ $32.00 


PBiMTER 


Sngs    Medusa. $19,00 

SeoBl  Silver  Blades. $3200 

Sim     Cily $21 .00 

Telris $14,00 

Tunican    II ...$20.00 

UKma     VI $49,00 

Vtad  Wrtor  VI $34,00 


SPECIALS 


STAR  PANASONIC  CITIZEN 

NX-IOOOC $166.95  KXP-1160 $159,95   GSX-UO 

NX-IOOOC  Rainbow $195.95  KXP-1191 $234.95   GSJC-US^ 

NX-1001 $149.95 

NX-1020Rainbow $139.95 

NX-2420 $279.95 

NX-2420  Rainbow. $299.55 


.$278,95 


(Wide  Carriage) $365.95 

200GX $169.M 


KXP-1123 $239.95 

KXP-1124! $299.95    Color  Option  Kils....'.!:...:..CALL 

{Commodore^  $1  QC|85 
I    MPS-1270  Inkjet      'WV 


NO  SURCHARGE  FOR  CREDIT  CARD  ORDERS 

CctOlcdcrwdi.  Bank  Check  Money  OtdGf»,Approwd  P.0.3,Visa,Ma&k^C3r(],  AmDx.0pbRi3,  [>nc(aC(ub.Caifi-et2nchc. 
COD'9  &  Wite  Tiamfcri  »cceptod  Please  call  before  submilling  P.O  s.  N«nurti)i«]  chccVs  must  wjil  24  wc^ks  foi 
ck-aidnco-  Piico?&ndavJibbil>lY9ubt«llochwgcwithoutnot)ce.  Nolrc^onstblcl(MtypogF3phiccno>3.  Rctumol 
dci«!ivc  mciclundiK  rnu$l  have  ptiw  ictum  auihaizalion  numbci  oi  returns  wi»not be  accpplcl  Sapping  &  Handling 
addiuonal  SccondDaf&Ncx,lDiyAiravailablcalpiii/acQst  CanadanordcisplcascuEJrotshippingialcs  APO  FPO 
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dwek tor CTcdi! card  Ihctt  OCfti800231 


G-4        COMPUTE 


Here's  Pari  2  of  the  list  of 
user  groups,  concluding 
witli  those  in  New  Jersey 
tinrough  Wyoming.  APOs, 
and  otiier  countries. 

NEW  JERSEY 

Info  64  Commodore  User 
Group,  c/o  Jerry  Fieiscfier, 
186  Delmar  Ave.,  Glen 
Rock,  NJ  07452 

Hillsdale  Commodore  64  Users 
Club,  32  Esplanade  Lake 
Dr.  Hillsdale,  NJ  07642 

Garden  State  Commodore  & 
MS-DOS  User's  Group,  89 
Stratford  Rd.,  Tinton  Falls,  NJ 
07724  (BBS#  201-938-3885) 

Commodore  User  Group  of  Cen- 
tral New  Jersey,  112  Old 
Bridge  Rd..  Matawan,  NJ 
07747 

Morris  Area  Commodore  User 
Group  (MACUG),  PO.  Box 
492,  Mt.  Tabor,  NJ  07878 

Rancocas  Valley  Users  Group 
(RVUG),  c/o  G.  C.  Heatfi, 
806  Windsor  Dr.,  Cinnamin- 
son,  NJ  08077  (BBS*  609^ 
267-7945) 

Data  Exchange-Beneficial  Us- 
ers Group  64/128  (D.E.- 
B.U.G.  64/128),  713  Second 
St.,  Dunellen,  NJ  08812 

Commodore  E.  Brunswick  Us- 
ers Group  (CEBUG),  P.O. 
Box  314,  E.  Brunswick.  NJ 
08816 

NEW  MEXICO 

New  Mexico  Commodore  User 
Group,  P.O.  Box  37127,  Al- 
buquerque, NM  87176 
(BBS#  505-268-4662) 

Los  Alamos  Commodore  Us- 
ers Group,  4214-A  Arizona 
St.,  Los  Alamos,  NM  87544 
(Voice#  505-662-5934) 

Taos  Area  Commodore  User's 
Group,  P.O.  Box  5686, 
Taos,  NM  87571 

The  Southern  New  Mexico  Com- 
modore User's  Group,  PO 
Box  4437,  University  Park 
Brancfi,  Las  Cruces,  NM 
88003 

Commodore  Users  Group  of 
Roswell  (CUGOR),  1619  N. 
Kansas,  Roswell,  NM  88201 

NEW  YORK 

New  York  Commodore  Interest 


Group  (NYC=tg),  115  Essex 
St.,  Box  #146,  New  York,  NY 
10002 

Kids'  Computer  News,  St. 
Hilda's  &  St.  Hugh's  School, 
619  W.  114th  St.,  New  York, 
NY  10025 

Folklife  Terminal  Club,  Box  555- 
R.  Co-op  City  Station,  Bronx, 
NY  10475 

Brooklyn  Commodore  User's 
Group,  c/o  Grodman,  1111 
Shore  Pkwy.,  Brooklyn,  NY 
11228  (Voice*  718-331- 
3835) 

Queens  Commodore  Users 
Group  (QCUG),  P.O.  Box 
129,  Ozone  Park,  NY  11417 
(BBS#  718-366-7445) 

Commodore  Users  Group  of 
Greater  New  York,  190-25 
Woodhull  Ave.,  Hollis,  NY 
11423 

N.C.C.C,  P.O.  Box  233,  Sea 
Cliff,  NY  11579 

Commodore  Lxing  Island  Club, 
15  Rochelie  Ct.,  Amityville, 
NY  11701  {BBS#  516-489- 
4061) 

Brentwood  64/128  Computer 
Ctub,  Public  Library,  2nd 
Ave.  &  4th  St.,  Brentwood. 
NY  11717 

Moliawk  Valley  Computer  User 
Group,  c/o  William  Nowak. 
3818  Stinson  Ave.,  Tribes 
Hill,  NY  12177 

Tri-City  Commodore  User's 
Group  (TCCUG),  PO.  Box 
12742,  Albany,  NY  12212- 
2742 

Hudson  Valley  Commo- 
dore Club,  P.O.  Box  2190, 
Kingston,  NY  12401 

The  Commodore  Computer 
Club  of  Syracuse,  233  Wil- 
liams St.,  Minoa.  NY  13116 
(BBS#  315-656-3544) 

Oswego  Commodore  User 
Group,  402  Mahar  Hafl, 
State  University  College, 
Oswego.  NY  13126 

Commodore  User  Group  of  Mas- 
sena  (COMA),  Star  Tech, 
280  E.  Orvis  St.,  fvlassena, 
NY  13662 

The  Niagara  Falls  Commodore/ 
IBM  Club,  2405  Willow  Ave., 
Niagara  Falls,  NY  14305 

Rainbow  Computer  Users 
Group,  c/o  St.  James  United 
Methodist  Church,  4661  Por- 


ter Rd,,  Niagara  Falls,  NY 

14305 
Geneva   Commodore   Users' 

Group,  25  Pine  St.,  Geneva, 

NY  14456 
Commodore  Users  Group  of 

Rochester  (CUGOR),  P.O. 

Box  23463,  Rochester,  NY 

14692  (BBS#  716-621-5908) 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

Triad  Commodore  Users 
Group,  RO.  10833,  Greens- 
boro. NO  27404 

Bailey's  User  Group  (BUG), 

P.O.  Box  70,  Holly  Springs, 

NC  27540 
Commodore  Users  Group  of  Lin- 

cointon,  Rte.  3,  Box  457,  Lin- 

colnton,  NC  28092 
Salisbury  Compute,  Charles  A 

Huffman.  280  Deal  Creek 

Dr..  Salisbury  NC  28144 
Asheville-Buncombe       User 

Group  (A-BUG),  RO.  Box 

15511,  Asheville,  NC  28813 

NORTH  DAKOTA 

Central   Dakota  Commodore 

Club,  RO,  Box  1584.  Bis- 
marck, ND  58502-1584 

OHIO 

The  Commodore  Club  of  Cen- 
tral Ohio  (CCCO),  RO.  Box 
292392,  Columbus,  OH 
43229  (BBS#  614-523-3459) 

Ashtabula  County  Commodore 
Users  Group  (ACCUG), 
1034  Michigan  Ave.,  Ashtab- 
ula, OH  44004 

Basic  Bits  Commodore  Group 
(BBCG),  RO.  Box  447,  N. 
Ridgeviile,  OH  44039 

NorthEast  Ohio  Computer  Us- 
ers Group  (NEOCUG),  RO, 
Box  196,  Wickliffe,  OH 
44092 

Portage  County  Commodore 
Family  User  Group 
(PCCFUG),  RO,  Box  901, 
Ravenna.  OH  44266 

Akron  Area  Commodore  Users 
Group  (AACUG),  RO  Box 
9293,  Akron,  OH  44305- 
9293 

Trumbull  Commodore  Users 
Group  (TRUMCUG),  RO, 
Box  8632,  Warren,  OH 
44484 

Mahoning  Valley  Commodore 
Club,  RO.  Box  1180,  Young- 


G-5 


Stown,  OH  44501 

Canton/Alfiance/Massillon  Users  Group 
(CAMUG),  P.O.  Box  2423,  N,  Canton, 
OH  44720  (BBS#  216-453-3319) 

Computer  Erie  Bay  Users  Group 
(CEBUG),  P,0,  Box  1461,  Sandusky,  OH 
44870 

Shelby  Computer  User  Group,  PO.  Box 
512,  Shelby.  OH  44875 

Western  Cincinnati  Commodore  Club 
(WESTCOM),  P.O.  Box  89,  Amelia,  OH 
45102-0089  (Voice*  513-753-7387) 

Cincinnati  Commodore  Computer  Club,  c/ 
0  Cure  of  Ars  School,  Berwick  and  Roe 
Streets.  Cincinnati,  OH  45227  (Voice# 
513-248-0025) 

Southwestern  Ohio  Commodore  Users 
Group  (SWOCUG),  RO.  Box  46644,  Cin- 
cinnati, OH  45246 

Dayton  Area  Commodore  Users  Group 
(D.A.C.U.G.),  1117  Lavern  Ave.,  Ketter- 
ing, OH  45429  (BBS#  513-878-1408) 

Chillrcothe  Commodore  Computer  Users 
Group  (ChllCUG),  PO.  Box  6014,  Chil- 
licothe,  OH  45601 

Hancock  User's  Group  (HUG-e4),  RO.  Box 
632,  Findlay,  OH  45839-0632  (BBS#  419- 
423-6648) 

OKLAHOMA 

Commodore  User's  Group  of  Lawton,  RO. 

Box  3392,  Lawton,  OK  73502 
Commodore  Users  of  Bartlesville,  1920 

SW  Santa  Fe,  Bartlesville,  OK  74003 

(BBS#  918-336-3872) 
Tulsa  Area  Commodore  Users  Group 

(TACUG),  PO,  Box  52473,  Tulsa,  OK 

74169-1842  (BBS#  918-428-2284) 
Osage/Kay  Commodore  User's  Group 

(OKCOM),  317  Woodbury,  Ponca  City, 

OK  74601 

OREGON 

geoMETRIX,  20224  S.  Sprague  Rd,,  Oregon 

City  OR  97045-9641 
Commodore  East  County  {C.E.C.),  1714  SE 

35th  Ave,,  Portland,  OR  97214-5039 
Crash-64  Salem  Area's  Commodore  Us- 
er's Group,  RO.  Box  241.  Salem,  OR 

97308  (BBS#  503-585-3092} 
Lane  County  Commodore  User  Group 

(LCCUG),  P.O.  Box  11316,  Eugene,  OR 

97440 
Coos  Computer  Club,  2175  Everett  St., 

North  Bend,  OR  97459-2336  (Voice# 

503-756-4408) 

PENNSYLVANIA 

A-K  Valley  Computer  Club,  1762  Fairmont 
St.,  New  Kensington,  RA  15068 

Betlis  Commodore  Users  Group,  592  Ar- 
bor Ln.,  Pittsburgh.  RA  15236 

Castle  Commodore  Computer  Club,  P.O. 
Box  961,  New  Castle,  PA  16103 

North  Coast  Commodore  Users  Group 
Erie,  RO.  Box  6117.  Erie,  RA  16512- 
6117  (BBS#  814-459-1947) 

Centre  Area  Commodore  Computer  Club, 
c/o  Neil  Dowlin,  1104  S.  Atherton  St., 
State  College,  RA  16801-6001 

Blue  Juniata  Commodore  Users  Group,  23 
Oakland  Ave.,  Lewistown,  RA  17044 
(BBS*  717-248-4877) 

Huntingdon  County  Hackers,  RO.  Box  132, 
Mill  Creek,  PA  17060 

Harrlsburg  Area  Computer  Group,  721  S, 


29th  St.,  Harrisburg.  PA  17111  (BBS# 
717-558-9080) 

White  Rose  Commodore  Users  Group, 
PO,  Box  7501,  York,  RA  17404-0501 

Lehigh  Valley  Commodore  User  Group,  c/ 
0  Fred  Knerr.  PO.  Box  2,  New  Tripoli, 
RA  16066  (Voice#  215-298-2516) 

Scranton  Commodore  Users  Group 
(S.C.U.G.),  RO,  Box  244,  Scranton,  RA 
18501-0244  (BBS#  717-489-8001) 

EPA  Commodore  Users  Group,  Edward  H 
Cohen,  1712  Aidenn  Lair  Rd.,  Dresher, 
PA  19025 

Horsham  Amiga/64,  20-A  Lumberjack  Cir., 
Horsham,  RA  19044 

Main  Line  Commodore  Users  Group 
(MLCUG),  1046  General  Allen  Ln.,  'West 
Chester,  PA  19382  (BBS*  215-354-9750 
and  Voice*  215-388-1581) 

Worldwide  Commodore  Users  Group  (In- 
ternational Headquarters  and  Share- 
ware Registry),  RO.  Box  337,  Blue 
Bell,  RA  19422 

Buxmont  Commodore  and  IBM  Users 
Group,  1206  Cowpath  Rd.,  Hatfield,  PA 
19440 

Antelope  Valley  Commodore  Users 
Group,  RO.  Box  4436,  Lancaster,  RA 
17603  (BBS*  805-272-9140) 

RHODE  ISUND 

Narragansett  Commodore  Users  Group, 

RO.   Box  8707,  Cranston.   Rl  02920 
(BBS*  401-737-9774) 

SOUTH  CAROLINA 

Greenville  Commodore  Users  Network 

(GCUN),     PO.  Box  5272,  Station  B, 
Greenville,  SC  29606 

SOUTH  DAKOTA 

Amiga  and  Commodore  64  Users  Group, 

RO,   Box   IS,   Vermillion,   SD   57069 
{Voice*  605-624-3471) 

TENNESSEE 

Clarksville  Commodore  Users  Group,  P.O. 

Box  2171,  Clarksville,  TN  37042-2171 
Multi-User  Computer  Club,  213  Holly  Ave., 

S.  Pittsburg.  TN  37380-1313  (BBS*  615- 

837-8352) 
Chattanooga  Commodore  Users,   1406 

Blackwell  Dr.,  Chattanooga,  TN  37412 
East  Tennessee  Commodore  Club,  P.O. 

Box  495,  Knoxville,  TN  37901 
Raleigh-Bartlett  Hackers  CUG,  c/o  James 

Patrick,  3457  Gatewood  Dr.,  Memphis, 

TN  38134 

TEXAS 

Society  of  Computer  Owners  and  P.E.T. 
Enthusiasts     (SCOPE),     RO,     Box 

833095,  Richardson,  TX  75083-3095 

Texas  Commodore  User's  Group,  RO.  Box 
623,  Royse  City  TX  75089 

Central  Texas  Computer  Users  Group,  902 
Carlisle,  Killeen,  TX  76541-7321 

Commodore  Houston  Users  Group 
(CHUG),  c/o  Ben  Daily,  PO.  Box  612, 
Tomball,  TX  77375-0612  BBS*  713-445- 
2484  and  Voice  *713-664-2484 

Southmost  In  Texas  Commodore  User's 
Group  (SITCOM),  c/o  Charles  Duncan, 
74  Laura  Ln.,  Brovi/nsville,  TX  78521 

Amistad  Commodore  Users  Group,  RO. 
Box  421212,  Del  Rio,  TX  78842 


Top  of  Texas  Commodore  (TOTCOM),  Box 

2851,  Pampa,  TX  79066-2851 
Tri-State  Commodore  Users  Group  (Tri- 

CUG),   RO,  Box  8971,  Amarillo,  TX 

79114-8971  (BBS*  806-355-3031) 
Commodore  Users  of  Texas  (CUT),  7007 

Memphis  Ave.,    Lubbock,    TX   79413 

(Voice*  806-792-7121) 
El  Paso  Commodore  User  Group,  RO.  Box 

370934.  El  Paso,  TX  79937  (BBS*  915- 

590-7678) 

UTAH 

Mountain  Computer  Society,  3898  Cheryl 
SL,  West  Valley,  UT  84119 

Moab  Commodore  User's  Group,  860  S.  An- 
tiquity Ln.,  Moab,  UT  84532 

VERMONT 

Springfield  Area  Computer  Club  (SACC),  6 

Bellows  Rd.,  Springfield,  VT  05156 
Maple  Valley  Commodore  Users  Group,  c/ 

0  Dave  Swainbank,  PO.  Box  106,  St.  Al- 
bans, VT  05478  (BBS*  802-524-9387) 

VIRGINIA 

Washington  Area  Commodore  User 
Group  (WAC),  RO.  Box  3602,  Fairfax, 
VA  22038-3602 

Dale  City  Commodore  Users  Group,  RO. 

Box  2675,  Dale  City,  VA  22193-0265 
(BBS*  703-361-7565) 

Fredericksburg  Commodore  Club,  RO. 
Box  8438,  Fredericksburg,  VA  22404- 
8438 

Middle  Peninsula  Commodore  User 
Group,  PO.  Box  391,  Gloucester,  VA 
23061  (BBS#s  804-642-3697  and  804- 
642-4293) 

CURVE,  RO.  Box  28284,  Riclimond,  VA 
23228  (BBS#s  804-266-1763  and  804- 
737-7936) 

The  Richmond  Area  Commodore  Enthu- 
siasts (TRACE),  2920  Pinehurst  Rd., 
Richmond,  VA  23228 

Peninsula  Commodore  User  Group  of  Vir- 
ginia, 211  Nina  Ct.,  Newport  News,  VA 
23602  (BBS*  804-638-2118) 

Henry  County  Commodore  Computer 
Club,  c/o  Doug  Wilcox,  1047  Graves  St., 
Martinsville,  VA  24112 

Lynchburg  User  Group,  Rte.  2,  Box  180,  Lyn- 
chburg, VA  24501 

Commodore  Users  of  Lynchburg  (CUOL), 
RO.  Box  3386,  Rivermont  Station,  Lyn- 
chburg, VA  24503 

WASHINGTON 

Renton  Computer  Group,  11308  SE  269th 
St.,  Kent,  WA  98031 

UT,  RO.  Box  1767,  Bothell,  'WA  98041-1767 

South  King  County  Commodore  User 
Group  (SKCCUG),  RO.  Box  5241, 
Kent,  WA  98064-5241 

NW  Commodore  User  Group,  2565  Dexter 
N  #203,  Seattle,  WA  98109  (BBS*  206- 
261-7661) 

PSACE,  1313  5th  Ave.  W  Seattle,  WA  98119- 
3410 

University  of  Washington  Commodore  Us- 
er Group  (UWCUG),  RO.  Box  25878,  Se- 
attle, WA  98125  (BBS*  206-281-7661) 

Commodore  Belllngham  User's  Group 
(CBUG),  RO.  Box  2756,  Belllngham,  WA 
98227  (BBS*  206-647-7120) 


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Club  64,  6735  Tracyton  Blvd.  NW,  Bremaer- 
ton,  WA  98310 

University  Place  Commodore  Home  Users 
Group  (UPCHUG),  PO.  Box  11191.  Ta- 
coma,  WA  98411-1101  (BBS#  206-565- 
0690) 

Lewis  County  CBM  Users  Group, 
c/o  Al  Kistenmacher,  2476  Pell-Mc- 
Donald Rd.,  Chehalis,  WA  98532 

Tri-Cfty  Commodore  Computer  Club  (TC 
CUBED),  P.O.  Box  224,  Richland,  WA 
99352-0224  (BBS#  509-588-6822) 

WEST  VIRGINIA 

Bluefield  User  Group  (BUG  20/64),  RO. 

Box  1190,  Bluefield,  WV  24701 
Commodore  Home  User's  Group  (CHUG), 

81  Lynwood  Ave.,  Wheeling,  WV  26003 

WISCONSIN 

Lakeshore  Commodore  Core,  519 
Westwood  Dr.,  Sheboygan  Falls,  Wl 
53085 

Computer  Hobbyists  Involved  in  Personal 
Systems  (CHIPS),  PO.  Box  1006,  West 
Bend,  Wl  53095 

Wisconsin  Association  of  Vic/C=  Enthu- 
siasts (WAVE),  1020  Kurlis  Dr.,  Elm 
Grove,  Wl  53122 

Milwaukee  Area  Commodore  Enthusiasts 
(M.A.C.E.),  PO.  Box  26216,  Milwaukee, 
Wl  53226 

Madison  Area  Commodore  Users  Group 
(MACUG),  P.O.  Box  1305,  Madison,  Wl 
53701-1305  (BBS#  608-277-9775  and 
Voices  608-831-6995) 

Price  County  Computer  User  Group,  630 
Knox  St.,  Prentice,  Wl  54556 

WYOMING 

Cheyenne  Association  of  Computer  En- 
thusiasts (CACE),  RO.  Box  1733,  Chey- 
enne, WY  82003-1733 

Casper  Commodore  Users  Group 
(CCUG),  c/o  Crazy  Mountain  Software, 
511  E.  2nd  St.,  Casper.  W/Y  82601 

U.S.  ARMED  SERVICES  ABROAD 

The  Muenster  Garrison  User's  Group,  c/o 

Mr.  Maki,  583rd  Ord  Co.,  APO,  NY 
09078 

Commodore  Computer  Users  Group — Hei- 
delberg, RO.  Box  232  (147th  Postal). 
APO,  NY  09102 

Chicksands  Computer  Club  (C  cubed) — 
England,  c/o  Erik  Pedersen,  Sox  148 
6950th  ESQ,  APO,  NY  09193 

USER  GROUPS  OUTSIDE  THE  U.S. 
AUSTRALIA 

Commodore  Computer  Users  Group 
(QLD),  RO.  Box  274,  Springwood  Old., 
Brisbane,  Queensland  4127,  Australia 

Commodore  Hornsby  User  Group,  PO. 
Box  1578.  Hornsby  Northgate,  N.S.W, 
2077,  Australia  (BBS#  61-02-484-2874) 

C64  Computer  User,  RO.  Box  826,  Young, 
N.S.W.  2594,  Australia 

Melbourne  Commodore  Computer  Club, 
RO.  Box  177,  Box  Hill,  Victoria  3128,  Aus- 
tralia 

Southern  Districts  Commodore  Users 
Club,  186  Elizabeth  Rd.,  Morphett  Vale. 
S.A  5162,  Australia  (BBS*  61-08-322- 
2716) 


BELGIUM 

C64  User  Group,  Thauvoy  Jesabel,  Chee. 
De  Malines,  3,  B-1970  Wezembeek-Op- 
pem,  Belgium 

BRAZIL 

Tcs  Computer  Club,  Rua  Job  Lane  650, 
04639  Santo  Amafo,  Sao  Paulo,  Brazil 

CANADA 
Alberto 

Commodore  Users  of  Edmonton  (C.U.E.), 

9550  83rd  St.,  Edmonton,  AB,  Canada 
T6C  3A1  (BBS#S  403-466-7656,  403-454- 
2832,  403-459-7522,  and  403-484-9200) 

British  Columbio 

Cariboo  Commodore  64  User  Group,  c/o 

Nick  Sardy,  RO,  Box  634,  150  Mile 
House,  BC,  Canada  VOK  2G0 

ChilEiwack  Community  Computer  Club, 
PO.  Box  413,  Sardis.  BC,  Canada  V2R 
1A7 

Port  Coquitlam  Computer  Club,  1752  Ren- 
ton  Way,  Port  Coquitlam,  BC,  Canada 
V3B  2R7  (BBS*  604-942-0947) 

New  Brunswick 

Moncton  Users  Group,  Box  2984  STN  A, 
Moncton,  NB,  Canada  E1C  8T8  (BBS# 
506-387-7963) 

North  American  Commodore  User  Group 
Association  (NACUGA), 

c/o  Dave  Quinn,  Box  2984,  Sta.  A,  Monc- 
ton, NB.  Canada  E1C  8T8 

Ontario 

Brampton  User's  Group  (BUG),  RO.  Box 

384,  Brampton,  ON,  Canada  L6V  2L3 

(BBS#  416-455-3610) 
Ottawa  Home  User  Group,  RO,  Box  4165, 

Sta.  C,  Ottawa,  ON.  Canada  K1Y  4P3 
TPUG,  5334  Yonge  St.,  Ste,  116,  Willowdale, 

ON,  Canada  M2N  6M2  (BBS*  416-733- 

2933) 

Quebec 

Commodore  64  De  I'Estrie,  c/o  Keith  An- 
drews, 805  Belmont,  Sherbrooke,  RQ, 
Canada  J1H  5P4  (Voice*  819-565-8750) 

Saskatchewan 

Commodore  User's  Group  of  Sas- 
katchewan (C.U.G.S.),  c/  o  Barry  Birch- 
er.  182  Coidwell  Rd..  Regina,  SK,  Cana- 
da S4R  4K8  (BBS#s  306-543-7683  and 
306-949-8605) 

Saskatoon  Commodore  Users  Group 
(SCUG),  c/o  O.B.  Harvey  2614  A  Haul- 
tain  Ave.,  Saskatoon,  SK,  Canada  S7J 
1R6  (BBS*  306-249-4959} 

COLOMBIA 

Commodore  Club  Medellln,  c/o  Hector 
ivan  Londono,  Apartado  Aereo  1231, 
Medellin,  Colombia 

ComSoft  Commodore  64/128/  Amiga  User 
Group,  c/o  D.  F.  Cardenas  or  E.  Lopez 
de  Mesa,  Apartado  Aereo  9872,  Cali. 
Colombia 


COSTA  RICA 

Club  Commodore  de  TIbas,  Marvin  Vega, 
P.O.  Box  516,  Tibas,  San  Jose,  Costa 
Rica 

EGYPT 

Commodore  64/128  User  Group,  15  Dr.  Ma- 

hegobe  Thabet  St.,  Agoza-Giza,  Egypt 
(Voice*  020-347-6149) 

ENGLAND 

Independent  Commodore  Products  User 

Group,  RO.  Box  1309,  London,  N3  2UT, 

England 
Independent  Commodore  Products  Users 

Limited,  45  Brookscrofi,  Linton  Glade. 

Croydon,  CRO  9NA,  England 

INDIA 

Bombay  Commodore  Club,  c/o  Haji  Bital 
Malbarwala,  Apna  Ghar  Housing  Soci- 
ety, BIdg.  No.  46,  B  Wing,  Lokhandwala 
Complex,  Versova,  Andheri  (West),  Bom- 
bay 400  058,  India 

JAPAN 

Commodore  Fan  Club,  c/o  Koji  Sugimura,  2- 
1-10-1107  Higasht-Taishi  Yao  Osaka,  Ja- 
pan 581 

MEXICO 

Arcano  17-Commodore  Group,  Calle  Plata 
3307,  Villa  San  Alejandro,  Puebia,  Rue. 
72090  Mexico  (BBS*  91-22-480-722) 

Club  Commodore  de  Juarez,  Calle  del  Man- 
antial  #1448,  Ciudad  Juarez,  Chihuahua, 
Mexico  32500  (BBS#s  011-52-16-17- 
3130  and  915-544-5549) 

Club  de  Usuarios  Commodore  de  Chihua- 
hua (CUCC),  R.  Calderon  *801,  Chihua- 
hua, Mexico  31240  (BBS#s  14-13-12-91 
and  011-52-14-13-12-91) 

NEW  ZEALAND 

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Zealand  (BBS*  0064-03-355-3896) 
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Group  (W.C.C.U.G.),  RO.  Box  787.  Ha- 
milton, New  Zealand 

PAKISTAN 

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PERU 

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Central  mz.  AT  #5,  Los  Alamos  de  Mon- 
terrico.  Lima  33,  Peru 

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G-8        COMPUTE 


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REVIEWS 


BACK  TO  THE 
FUTURE  II 

Join  Marty  McFly  as  he  trav- 
els through  time  again  in 
Back  to  the  Future  II.  The  mov- 
ie tells  the  comic,  disjointed 
story  of  time  travel  in  Doc's 
DeLorean  time  machine.  The 
software  is  mostly  an  arcade 
game  w/ith  a  couple  of  puz- 
zles added. 

The  object  of  the  game  is 
to  make  your  way  through 
five  levels  of  play  to  retrieve 
a  sports  almanac  stolen  by 
old  Biff  in  2015  and  given  to 
young  Biff  in  1955.  Three  of 
these  five  levels  are  simple 
arcade  games,  and  two  are 
logic  puzzles.  While  the  idea 
is  intriguing,  the  program 
promises  more  enjoyment 
than  it  delivers.  The  documen- 
tation, which  is  brief  but  well 
written,  ties  the  game  to  the 
movie  by  describing  the 
film's  opening  scene  and 
then  provides  the  user  with 
background  information 
about  each  play  level. 

The  game  opens  with 
some  elegant  graphics  se- 
quences. On  the  first  level 
you  must  maneuver  a  hover- 
board  (a  flying  skateboard) 
through  the  streets  of  Hill  Val- 
ley in  the  year  2015.  Your  mis- 
sion is  to  reach  the  town  hall 
before  running  out  of  time  or 
depleting  your  energy, 

Maneuvering  the  hover- 
board  is  simple  and  fun.  You 
can  move  freely  in  all  direc- 
tions, accelerate,  brake,  and 
jump.  It  is  essential  to  learn 
to  time  these  last  two  maneu- 
vers accurately,  since  you 
must  sometimes  wait  for  pow- 
er points  as  they  drop  from 
the  sky,  Try  learning  to  at- 
tach yourself  to  the  back  of 
a  passing  car  for  a  joyride. 

When  you  reach  the  pond 
at  the  end  of  the  last  street, 
you'll  know  how  to  get  to  the 
town  hall  and  complete  the 
mission  if  you've  seen  the 
movie.  Anyone  who  hasn't 

G-10        COMPUTE 


seen  the  movie  will  still  quick- 
ly figure  out  how  to  complete 
the  first  task.  Running  out  of 
time  never  seems  to  be  an  ob- 
stacle. Your  time  is  extended 
whenever  you  reach  the  end 
of  any  of  seven  streets  that 
lead  to  the  town  hall. 
Maintaining  your  energy 


um    earns   you    the    most 
points. 

To  aid  you  along  the  way. 
speed,  acceleration,  and 
power  bonuses  regularly 
drop  from  the  sky.  Do  not 
miss  an  opportunity  to  gath- 
er power  points,  as  these 
will  restore  all  lost  energy. 


Iviarty  McFly  can  hitch  a  ride  through  danger-filled  streets. 


level,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
considerably  more  difficult. 
A  roving  gang  on  hover- 
boards,  old  Biff  with  his 
cane,  stray  dogs,  cars,  mo- 
bile trash  cans,  and  radio- 
controlled  hovercraft  harass 
you  along  the  way.  Coming 
in  contact  with  any  of  these 
enemies  lowers  your  energy 
level.  You  can  punch  your  op- 
ponents on  the  hoverboards, 
but  it  seems  better  to  avoid 
gang  members  rather  than 
confront  them. 

Cars,  dogs,  and  hover- 
craft are  sufficiently  powerful 
to  knock  you  from  your  hover- 
board  in  one  shot  if  you  run 
into  them  head-on.  fvlan- 
holes,  slick  spots,  and  curbs 
do  limited  damage.  Along 
the  way  you  can  pick  up 
caps,  shoes,  soda  cans, 
newspapers,  or  plutonium 
for  extra  points.  Perhaps  be- 
cause of  the  obvious  dan- 
ger, scooping  up  the  plutoni- 


The  best  overall  strategy  is 
to  remain  near  the  middle  of 
the  screen,  pick  up  all  items 
in  the  street,  avoid  all  items 
on  the  sidewalks,  and  use 
quick,  lateral  movements  to 
evade  obstacles,  Back- 
ground graphics  are  bnght, 
colorful,  and  well  conceived, 
but  sprites  are  jagged  with 
muddy  colors.  It  is  fascinat- 
ing, however,  to  watch  the 
coordination  of  so  many 
sprites  with  the  smoothly 
scrolling  backgrounds,  but 
the  program  is  not  without 
flaws.  Your  hoverboard  can 
move  faster  than  the  back- 
ground, so  when  you  reach 
the  edge  of  the  screen,  you 
have  to  wait  for  the  back- 
ground to  catch  up.  Occa- 
sionally, the  action  on  the 
screen  overwhelms  the  com- 
puter, making  the  sound- 
track and  character  move- 
ment erratic. 
The  second  level  is  a  log- 


ic puzzle  in  which  you  must 
get  Marty's  girlfriend,  Jennif- 
er, out  of  a  house  without  her 
being  detected.  You  control 
both  Jennifer  and  the  other 
people  in  the  house  by  open- 
ing doors  two  at  a  time. 
When  a  door  is  opened,  a 
room's  occupant  will  move  to 
an  adjoining  room.  At  no 
time  should  Jenny  share  a 
room  with  anyone. 

The  house  is  viewed  from 
above,  making  it  difficult  at 
first  to  differentiate  the  char- 
acters, but  Jenny  is  the  one 
on  the  far  left,  You  are  expect- 
ed to  race  the  clock  while 
planning  your  solution,  but 
the  Run/Stop  key  turns  off 
the  clock,  so  running  out  of 
time  is  never  a  problem.  This 
level  is  a  nice  change  of 
pace  because  it  requires 
more  planning  than  reflex  ac- 
tion. The  puzzle,  however,  is 
not  very  challenging.  The 
third  level  is  a  return  to  ar- 
cade action  with  a  special  em- 
phasis on  violence.  The  ob- 
ject is  to  reach  the  end  of  the 
street  safely,  avoiding 
armed  villains,  flying  barrels, 
rocks,  and  Frisbees.  Your  var- 
ious karate  kicks  and  punch- 
es can  eliminate  most  ene- 
mies, but  the  individual  with 
the  semiautomatic  weapon 
is  virtually  impossible  to  con- 
quer or  pass.  This  level's  use 
of  gratuitous  violence  is  a 
disappointment,  and  its  con- 
nection to  the  movie's  story 
line  is  tenuous.  The  fourth 
scene  also  is  linked  weakly 
to  actual  movie  action,  but  it 
takes  a  more  imaginative 
turn.  Here  you  are  to  solve  a 
sliding  block  puzzle  while  rac- 
ing the  clock.  One  added 
twist  is  that  the  block  puzzle 
is  animated. 

The  fifth  level  is  another 
street  race  in  which  you 
must  retrieve  the  stolen  alma- 
nac. The  toughest  part  of 
this  level  is  reaching  it.  Sav- 
ing games  in  progress  is  not 
a  feature  of  this  program,  so 
you  must  complete  the  first 


The  Gazette 

Productivity 

Manager 

(Formerly  PowerPak)  ^^^ 

Harness  the  productivity 
power  of  your  64  or  128! 

Turn  your  Commodore  into 
a  powerful  workhorse,  keep  track 
of  finances,  generate  reports 
in  a  snap,  manage  your 
money  in  minutes- 
all  with  the  new  1991 
Gazette  Productivity 
Manager!  Look  at  all 
your  64/128  Productivity 
Manager  disk  contains. 

0 

GemCalc  64  &  128—  ^ 

A  complete,  powerful,  user- 
friendly  spreadsheet  with  all 
the  features  you'd  expect 
in  an  expensive  commercial  package 

(separate  64  and  128  versions  are  included). 

Most  commands  can  be  performed  with  a  single  keypress! 

Memo  Card — Unleashes  the  power  of  a  full-blown 
database  without  the  fuss!  Nothing's  easier — it's  a 
truly  simple  computerized  address  file.  Just  type  in 
your  data  on  any  one  of  the  index  cards.  Need  to  edit? 
Just  use  the  standard  Commodore  editing  keys. 
Finished?  Just  save  the  data  to  floppy  What  could  be 
easier? 

Financial  Planner — Answers  all  of  those  questions 
concerning  interest,  investments,  and  money  manage- 
ment that  financial  analysts  charge  big  bucks  for!  You 
can  plan  for  your  children's  education  and  know 
exactly  how  much  it  will  cost  and  how  much  you  need 
to  save  every  month  to  reach  your  goal.  Or,  decide 
whether  to  buy  or  lease  a  new  car.  Use  the  compound 
interest  and  savings  function  to  arrive  at  accurate 
estimates  of  how  your  money  vnll  work  for  you. 
Compute  the  answer  at  the  click  of  a  key! 

DON'T  MISS  OUT  ON  THIS 
POWERFUL  WORKHORSE! 


(MasterCard  and  Visa  accepted  on  orders  with  sublalal  over  S20). 


Froductimty  Manager  (lisk(s) 


lJ  YES!  Please  send  me  . 

(S14.95  each). 

Subtotal 

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Send  your  order  to  Gazette  1991  Productivity  Manager, 
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REVIEWS 


four  levels  each  time  you 
play  before  you  get  a 
cfiance  to  tackle  the  final 
one.  As  an  arcade  game  the 
program  succeeds,  but  as  a 
computer  reproduction  of 
tfie  movie,  it  falls  far  short. 
Tfie  movie  worked  because 
the  action  was  supported  by 
dialogue  wfiich  gave  the  view- 
er a  disjointed  sense  of  time 
travel.  If  Back  to  the  Future 
It  included  a  level  that  al- 
lowed the  player  to  interact 
with  other  characters  in  or- 
der to  help  Marty  find  his 
way  through  time,  the  game 
would  be  vastly  improved.  In- 
stead, the  characters  and 
time  settings  add  nothing  to 
the  action,  and  they  seem  to 
have  been  chosen  only  as  a 
vehicle  for  standard  arcade 
fare.  If  joystick  action  is  your 
thing,  you'll  enjoy  this  pro- 
gram. If,  however,  you're  ex- 
pecting to  step  into  Marty 
McFly's  shoes  and  warp 
through  time,  the  game  will 
leave  you  flat. 

JIM  SMITH 

Commodore  64  or  128— $29.95 

IMAGE  WORKS 
Distributed  by  Konami 
900  Deerfield  Pkwy. 
Buffalo  Grove,  IL  60089-4510 
(708)  215-5100 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  316 

FASTFINGERS 

Students  of  sound,  take 
note;  If  you're  interested  in 
shaping  sounds  or  learn- 
ing about  synthesis  and  if 
you  have  access  to  a  Mat- 
tel Intellivision  keyboard, 
check  out  Fastfingers. 

Dan  Laskowski  devel- 
oped this  program  (original- 
ly in  1984)  with  two  basic 
thoughts  in  mind:  to  ex- 
plore the  sound  synthesis 
abilities  of  the  64  SID  chip 
and  to  allow  the  64  to  act 
as  a  lead  synthesizer 
when  attached  to  a  full- 
size  external  keyboard  by 

G-12        COMPUTE 


means  of  a  special  connec- 
tor. He  is  making  the  pro- 
gram available  again  on  a  di- 
rect basis,  but  it  should  be 
noted  that  it  is  in  limited  sup- 
ply with  even  fewer  key- 
board connectors.  Availabil- 
ity of  the  Intellivision  key- 
board is  uncertain.  At  this 


tain  keys  on  the  two  bottom 
rows  (referred  to  in  the  man- 
ual as  piano  buttons)  are  re- 
served for  playing.  Octaves 
are  changed  by  selecting 
them  from  the  Sound 
Shaper  menu.  Other  keys  ac- 
cess preset  sounds, 
chords,  and  a  sound  se- 


fASTFINGERS  C0PVRI6HT  1984  DftH  LASKOHSKl 
HELODV 


JaM<f^  I  ^  ?>i  i£   'MM  ai 


ttiUalal*}  238 

I  liiima  5080 


(1! 


^^   FOR   HANDS   OFF   SEQUENCER  i 
MELiaai  ftRPB   TRHtJ  CLIPil  SPLH 


PULSEJSVHC  R1K6     MAVE       ftTK  PICV_SUS_REL. 


Learn  more  about  sounds  and  music  with  Fastfingers. 


writing,  Laskowski  has  three 
of  them  and  will  sell  an  en- 
tire package  for  $119.  With 
an  eye  (or  is  it  ear?)  toward 
reaching  student  musicians, 
he  offers  special  rates  to  mu- 
sic educators. 

Because  it  is  somewhat 
dated,  Fasff/ngers' presenta- 
tion is  not  as  slick  as  those 
of  some  other  programs.  Its 
four  menus  are  a  bit  crowd- 
ed and  clunky-looking,  but 
you  get  used  to  them.  The 
sounds,  which  are  the  impor- 
tant part,  are  amazing. 
Fastfingers  was  written  be- 
fore the  MIDI  explosion,  yet 
Laskowski  programmed  it 
for  256  sounds  and  even 
coaxed  an  extra  suboctave 
out  of  the  SID  chip. 

While  developing  sounds 
and  recording  a  track  on 
disk  are  clearly  easier  with 
an  external  keyboard  (not 
tested  here),  the  computer 
keyboard  is  sufficient.  Cer- 


quencer;  permit  loading  and 
saving  sounds  from  disk; 
and  allow  you  to  record, 
play  back,  and  control 
sounds  you've  created. 

This  first  menu,  Play 
Mode,  is  the  default  when 
no  control  keys  are 
pressed.  Pressing  (and  hold- 
ing) Shift  pulls  down  the 
Sound  Shaper  and  Effects 
menu,  the  Control  key  pulls 
down  the  Sound  Banks,  and 
Controi/Shift  accesses  the 
Sound  Shaper. 

The  preset  sounds  are  sim- 
ply eight  sounds  taken  from 
the  sound  bank  for  easy  ac- 
cess. You  can  use  these,  re- 
place them  with  others  from 
the  bank,  or  create  your 
own  and  install  them.  One- 
finger  chords  are  available: 
three  major  chords,  three  mi- 
nor ones,  and  six  others. 
The  chords  can  be  can- 
celed at  the  press  of  a  key, 
which  causes  all  three  voic- 


es to  play  the  same  note  in 
unison.  The  sound  se- 
quencer allows  you  to  trig- 
ger arpeggios  to  play  auto- 
matically. 

To  simplify  things,  Laskow- 
ski makes  use  of  the  familiar 
style  of  a  cassette  record- 
er's buttons  to  record,  re- 
wind, fast-forward,  and  play 
your  works.  On  playback, 
adjustments  can  be  made 
to  speed  and  sound.  With 
this  you  can  create  melo- 
dies, arpeggios,  and  even  re- 
cord a  "walking  bass  line" 
by  means  of  the  transposer 
function.  Once  you  have 
laid  out  your  sounds  the 
way  you  want  them,  record- 
ed your  melody,  and  ar- 
ranged your  transposer  and 
arpeggio,  you  can  save  the 
winole  arrangement  to  disk. 
This  Save  is  an  old-fash- 
ioned save  which  dumps  eve- 
rything onto  a  disk  under 
the  lump  title  Sounds.  This 
limits  you  to  one  file  per 
disk,  and  the  manual  rec- 
ommends dedicating  the 
disk  to  Sounds  only,  al- 
though you  could  probably 
use  it  to  save  something  not 
connected  with  Fastfingers. 

If  this  is  sounding  too  tech- 
nical  for  you,  it  gets  more 
so.  Now  we  come  to  the 
heart  of  this  program:  build- 
ing sounds.  While  not  sophis- 
ticated enough  to  include 
an  on-disk  tutorial  (this  is  on- 
ly a  one-disk  program),  the 
Fastfingers  manual  guides 
you  through  modifying  exist- 
ing sounds  and  creating 
new  ones.  One  chapter 
shows  you  how  to  play  with 
such  effects  as  Flang, 
Pulse  Width  Kick,  Glide, 
Thicken,  Weow,  Swirl,  Wah 
(1&2),  Tremolo,  Pswirl,  Vi- 
brato, Phase  Shifter,  and  Dig- 
ital Distortion.  Effects  are  soft- 
ware effects  used  to  simu- 
late or  replace  hardware  ef- 
fects, and  they  work  on  all 
three  voices. 

Another  chapter  teaches 
you  about  building  sounds, 


beginning  with  the  selection 
of  voice  1,  2,  or  3.  You  learn 
about  adjusting  the  oscilla- 
tors up  and  down  in  semi- 
tone increments,  selecting 
waveforms,  using  harmon- 
ics, using  (or  bypassing)  fil- 
ters, and  adjusting  the 
ADSR  (Attack,  Decay,  Sus- 
tain, and  Release}.  Students 
of  sound  with  the  patience 
to  check  out  each  minor  ad- 
justment will  have  a  wealth 
of  sound  to  explore. 

The  dearth  of  new  soft- 
ware for  the  64  has  sent  de- 
velopers back  to  their  clos- 
ets to  have  another  look  at 
older  programs  to  see  if 
there's  something  to  dust  off 
and  reissue.  Fastfingers  is 
one  such  program,  and  the 
question  arises,  does  it  still 
stand  up?  We  are  com- 
pelled to  give  a  qualified 
Yes. 

There  are  musical  pro- 
grams with  far  slicker  presen- 
tations. The  tutorial  and  ani- 
mation in  the  Sight  and 
Sound  3001  series  leap  to 
mind.  Fastfingers  lacks  feed- 
back in  that  it  doesn't  tel[ 
you  what  sound  (preset  or 
sound  bank)  or  even  what  oc- 
tave is  in  current  use.  It 
seems  to  us,  particularly  if 
you  are  using  this  setup  in 
performance  as  Laskowski 
says  you  can,  you  ought  to 
have  an  onscreen  reminder 
of  what  you've  selected.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  range  of 
sounds  is  almost  mind-bog- 
gling. Providing  for  the  use 
of  a  48-key  external  key- 
board is  a  unique  touch 
that  may  send  some  young 
musicians  hunting  through 
the  classified  ads  to  pick  up 
a  used  one. 

Laskowski  is  first  a  musi- 
cian, a  fact  that  becomes  ob- 
vious when  talking  with  him 
or  reading  his  manual.  Al- 
though certainly  not  the  on- 
ly person  to  envision  the  64 
as  a  synthesizer,  he  is  the  on- 
ly one  to  take  it  to  this  de- 
gree. In  Fastfingers  he  has 


taken  an  unusual  slant  on 
the  64  and  developed  a  64 
oddity,  a  program  that's  cer- 
tainly not  for  everybody,  but 
will  certainly  intrigue  those 
with  an  interest  in  music. 

DAVE  and  ROBIN  MINNICK 

Commodore  64  or  128— $29.95. 
$69,95  with  keyboard  conneclor 

DAN  LASKOWSKI 
9078  Copperfield  Ct. 
Windsor,  ON 
Canada  N8S  4H3 
(519)948-3915 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  317 

NIGHTBREED 

From  out  of  the  dark  shad- 
ows of  your  mind  came  the 
mystical  thriller  Nighitbreed, 
a  movie  that  had  people  hold- 
ing tightly  onto  their  seats. 
Now,  it's  your  joystick  that 
you'll  want  to  grab  tightly  be- 
cause Nigtitbreed  is  now  an 
arcade  game  on  your  64. 

You  assume  the  role  of 
Boone,  a  guy  with  some  psy- 
chiatric problems,  and  begin 
your  journey  at  the  gates  of 
Necropolis,  a  local  grave- 
yard. The  object  of  the 
game  is  to  save  the 
Nightbreed  from  an  evit  or- 
ganization that  calls  itself 
Sons  of  tfie  Free.  Who  are,  or 
what  is,  Nightbreed? 
Nightbreed  is  a  race  of  be- 
ings older  than  mankind, 
who  possess  the  power  to 
change  shape  and  form. 

Once  the  game  begins, 
you'll  constantly  be  chal- 
lenged with  different  objec- 
tives. Even  though  it's  an  ar- 
cade-type game,  you  must 
complete  many  different 
tasks  before  progressing  to 
a  different  level  of  play. 

At  the  bottom  of  the 
screen  is  the  game's  status 
panel.  Here  you'll  find  valu- 
able information  to  help  you 
during  play,  There's  a  list  of 
objects  in  Boone's  posses- 
sion, as  well  as  a  power  lev- 
el that  indicates  his  injuries, 
life  number,  and  status  as  ei- 


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!      Freeware  For  Commodore  64/128      \ 
GAMES,  GAMES,  GAMES! 

~i  (6102)  ADVENTURE  ROAD  1  -  Conlairts  4  adventyre  games:  Scary,  Africa,  ArJventufe  S  mors, 

3  (6123)  ADVENTURE  ROAO ;  2  - 1 0  teiVgfaphc  adventure  garnes  including  SLEUTH. 

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3(0OM)C-128G«MES   2.60cel' 

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"1  (6097)  IN  THE  MALL   T  -Contains  14  arcade  games.  Try  your  skill  on  these  gettis. 

"I  (6099)  IN  THE  MtLL  2  ■  Contains  14  arcade  games,  [ndudes  Moondog,  Skiing,  &  more. 

"1  (6142)  IN  THE  HALL  3-12  more  a/cade  games  including  BOULDER  DASH  and  KANGA. 

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~i  (6101)  LADY  LUCK   1  -  Contains  10  casino  games.  Roulette,  Craps,  BJ.  Poker  &  more. 

:n  (6202)  LADV  LUCK  2  - 10  jambling  games  including  ONE  ARMED  BANDIT  and  21 . 

"1  (6203)  LADV  LUCK  3  - 17  gambling  games  including  CWDGE  CrTY  POKEH  and  KENO. 

"1  (609B)  ON  THE  BOAflDS  / 1  -  Contains  1 1  board  games.  Includes  Yahlzee,  Battleship  i.  more 

"1  (6119)  ON  THE  BOARDS  2  - 12  board  and  card  games  Includinj  baltleship  and  chess. 

n  (6120)  ON  THE  BOARDS  3-17  more  board  and  card  games  including  CRIBBAGE  and  BINGO, 

"l(6116)PUBBOARDGAMES-  Darts,  eowling,  Pool.  Checkers.  Backgammon.  Chess,  and  more. 

-i  (6204)  THE  FINAL  FROTOER   1  ■  10  arton  tilled  space  games  induding  METEOR  SHOWER. 

"1  (6206)  THE  FINAL  FROHTiER  3  ■  18  action  tilled  space  games  including  CANYON  RUNNER. 

-1  (6207)  THE  FINAL  FRONTIER  4 .  IB  action  tilled  space  games  ixluding  SPACE  DEFENDER. 

n  (6104)  THE  SPOR-HNG  LIFE  -  Contains  Golf.  Miniature  6oll,  Baseball  64,  Boxing  and  Trap. 

(6208)  THE  SPORTING  LIFE  2  -  !9  games  relating  to  ^rts  including  BOWLING  and  BOXING. 
"1  (6108)  VICTORY  SOFTWARE  1  -  The  llrst  disk  of  shareware  games  b/  Victory  Software, 


I  To 


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:|J818)  700-0784  Msg/Fax       (800)  233-2451  Orders  Only! 
ClrcK  Rndar  Swviea  Number  129 


ther  monster  or  man. 

You  control  Boone  with  a 
joysticl<  to  punch,  l<ick,  or 
shoot  your  way  past  the 
many  different  creatures 
that  pursue  you.  Each  con- 
frontation with  a  monster  will 
have  different  challenges  for 
you  to  overcome.  For  exam- 
ple, I  found  the  Fatman  fairly 
simple  to  overcome,  yet  the 


Sons  of  the  Free  were  chal- 
lenging, using  everything 
from  rocket  launchers  to  gre- 
nades in  an  attempt  to  stop 
me.  Also,  you'll  find  each  en- 
emy has  a  unique  power 
that  makes  it  dangerous. 
The  Fatman  moves  slowly, 
but  he  vomits,  and  the  vomit 
is  poisonous  to  the  touch. 
Since  this  is  an  arcade-type 


Should  Boone  defeat  the  grenade  tosser,  lie  still  must  defuse  ttie  time 
bomb  before  he  can  continue  h/s  quest  to  save  the  Nightbreed. 

G-13 


REVIEWS 


thriller,  you  can  expect  other 
gross  experiences  through- 
out the  game. 

In  your  path  you'll  encoun- 
ter such  graveyard  charmers 
as  the  Snakeman,  the  Hop- 
per, Flying  Teeth,  a  Head 
Monster,  and  a  Roof  Crawl- 
er. This  last  fellow  delights  in 
dropping  rocks  on  you. 

One  unique  feature  you 
will  find  is  the  passkey  which 
allows  you  to  skip  certain 
parts  of  the  game.  The  key  is 
a  password-type  system 
that  uses  graphics  instead  of 
text.  You  create  a  passkey- 
from  various  pieces  dis- 
played on  the  game's  back- 
ground scenes.  Using  the  cor- 
rect key  allows  you  to  skip  to 
certain  points  in  the  game. 

Making  a  map  of  the 
game  is  also  useful.  The 
game  can  be  confusing  if 


you  don't  know  where  you've 
been  or  where  you  need  to 
go.  As  with  many  games  of 
this  type,  you  can  move  in  a 
variety  of  directions  and  en- 
counter a  number  of  foes  as 
your  hero  attempts  to  com- 
plete his  quest.  A  map  helps 
you  avoid  many  blind  alleys. 

At  first  glance  I  thought 
that  Nightbreed  was  going 
to  be  a  simple  arcade  game 
and  that  completing  it  would 
be  an  easy  task,  I  was 
wrong.  It  provides  plenty  of 
nonstop  action  that  should 
have  you  grasping  your  joy- 
stick for  quite  a  few  hours  of 
nerve-wracking  play. 

The  graphics  are  very 
well  done,  and  the  game  re- 
mains true  to  the  movie's 
theme.  If  you're  looking  for  a 
good  action-packed  game, 
then  turn  down  the  lights, 


grab  some  popcorn,  and 
boot  up  a  copy  of 
Nightbreed! 

JEFFERY  SCOTT  HALL 

Commodore  64  or  128— $14.95 

OCEAN  OF  AMERICA 
Dislributed  by  Electronic  Arts 
1820  Gateway  Dr. 
San  Mateo,  CA  94404 
(415)571-7171 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  313 

POWER  DRIFT 

For  a  fast-paced,  hard- 
edged  race  through  five  dif- 
ferent road  courses,  try  Pow- 
er Drift.  Pit  your  skills  in  this 
arcade-style  release  from  Ac- 
tivision  against  12  other  rac- 
ers who  are  out  to  win  at  all 
costs.  Speed  through  hairpin 
turns  at  over  200  kph  and 


plunge  over  hills  into  steep 
drops,  just  get  to  the  finish 
line  first. 

At  the  start  of  the  game, 
choose  the  race  terrain  you 
want  and  a  driver.  Terrains  in- 
clude city,  beach,  desert, 
countryside,  and  riverside. 
There's  also  a  wide  selection 
of  male  and  female  drivers 
from  which  to  choose. 

As  the  starting  lights  turn 
from  red  to  green  and  the 
race  begins,  the  other  driv- 
ers will  leap  ahead  of  you. 
Push  forward  on  your  joy- 
stick to  accelerate.  This  will 
take  you  to  about  130  kph. 
Change  from  low  to  high 
gear  by  pressing  the  firebut- 
ton.  In  high  gear  your  car 
reaches  its  maximum  speed 
of  224  kph.  Pulling  back  on 
the  joystick  acts  as  a  brake, 
but  with  a  little  practice  you'll 


^^TIME 

^\$   AND 

$  MONEY 

Yes,  save  time  and  money!  Subscribe  to  the  Gazette 
Disk  and  get  all  tlie  exciting,  fun-filled  Gazette  pro- 
grams for  your  Commodore  64  or  128— already  on 
disk! 

Subscribe  today,  and  month  after  month  you'll 
get  all  the  latest,  most  challenging,  and  fascinating 
programs  published  in  the  corresponding  issue  of 
COMPUTE. 

New  on  the  Gazette  Disk!  In  addition  to  the 
programs  that  appear  in  the  magazine,  you'll  also 
get  outstanding  bonus  programs.  These  programs, 
which  are  often  too  large  to  offer  as  type-ins,  are 
available  only  on  disk— they  appear  nowhere  else. 

As  another  Gazette  Disk  extra,  check  out 


"Gazette  Gallery,"  where  each  month  we  present  the 
very  best  in  original  64  and  128  artwork. 

So  don't  waste  another  moment.  Subscribe  to- 
day to  COMPUTE'S  Gazette  Disk  and  get  12  issues 
for  only  $49.95.  You  save  almost  60%  off  the  single- 
issue  price.  Clip  or  photocopy  and  mail  completed 
coupon  today. 

Individual  issues  of  the  disk  are  available  for 
$9.95  (plus  $2.00  shipping  and  handling)  by  writing 
to  COMPUTE,  324  West  Wendover  Avenue,  Suite 
200,  Greensboro,  North  Carolina  27408. 


G-14 


COMPUTE 


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be  able  to  maintain  top 
speed  ttirougtiout  the  entire 
course.  Just  watcin  for  ottier 
drivers. 

As  you  progress  around 
thie  course,  your  time, 
speed,  position,  and  lap  num- 
ber are  posted  at  ttie  top  of 
the  screen.  To  advance  to 
the  next  round,  you  must 
place  in  the  top  three  finish- 
ers. Racing  in  the  higher 
rounds  is  more  difficult  and 
there's  a  greater  possibility 
of  ramming  other  drivers. 
When  this  happens,  the  re- 
sult is  a  dramatic  spin-out 
with  you  hurtling  across  the 
course.  When  your  car  final- 
ly comes  to  a  halt  back  on 
the  road,  try  to  make  up  lost 
time,  Don't  overdo  it  or  you'll 
end  up  in  another  spin-out. 

As  long  as  you  keep  plac- 
ing w/ithin  the  top  three,  you'll 


continue  advancing  to  high- 
er levels.  Finish  back  in  the 
pack  and  the  race  is  over. 
One  of  the  best  features  of 
this  game  is  that  it  restarts 
very  quickly.  You  don't  have 
to  sit  and  vt^ait  for  it  to  reload 
every  time.  At  the  end  of  a 
game  you  can  try  another 
course  and  change  drivers  if 
you  want. 

Power  Drift's  graphics  are 
colorful  and  interesting,  but 
if  you  have  any  Intention  of 
placing  in  the  top  three,  you 
won't  have  time  to  notice 
your  surroundings  or  the 
scenery  as  it  files  by.  One  in- 
teresting effect  is  the  road;  it 
seems  to  be  suspended  in 
air.  There  are  no  guard  rails 
and  on  hills  the  road  often 
drops  like  a  rollercoaster. 
Watch  out  for  those  blind 
drops  though.  A  car  could 


be  just  over  the  crest  and  if 
you  bump  one  at  high 
speeds,  you  could  go  crash- 
ing off  the  road. 

There  is  a  steady,  pound- 
ing pulse  to  the  background 
music  that  keeps  you  racing 
through  the  turns  and  hills. 
Even  when  you're  adding 
your  name  to  the  list  of  high 
scorers,  the  powerful  beat 
continues.  It  complements 
the  action  as  you  move 
through  the  courses. 

The  player's  guide  is  easy 
to  understand.  It  explains 
how  to  load  the  program  and 
how  to  use  the  joystick.  All 
you  have  to  know  is  which  di- 
rection to  push  or  pull  the  joy- 
stick and  how  to  change 
gears.  It's  all  clearly  ex- 
plained in  the  manual. 
■  In  all.  Power  Drift  is  not  a 
game  to  play  for  hours  on 


end,  but  it  is  fun.  There's  plen- 
ty of  white-knuckle  action  as 
you  speed  around  each 
course  and  drift  through  the 
corners.  Tension  builds  as 
you  progress.  The  first  few 
races  are  fairly  easy  and  the 
courses  somewhat  forgiving, 
but  accidents  become  more 
frequent  and  the  amount  of 
driving  skill  needed  increas- 
es as  you  advance  to  higher 
levels. 

So,  wait  for  the  green 
light,  happy  racing,  and 
don't  forget  to  buckle  up! 

ALISON  CHRISTENSON 

Commodore  64  and  128— $29,95 

ACTIVISION 

3885  Bohannon  Dr, 

Menio  Park.  CA  94025 

(415)  329-0800  □ 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  319 


COMPUTE'S 


SpeedScrlpt  Dish 


A  powerful  word  processing 
package  for  Commodore  64 
and  1 28  owners 

A  Great  Deal  for  Commodore 
Users! 

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•  80-column  preview  for  the  64 

•  Turbo  save  and  load 

•  Plus  more  than  a  dozen  other  SpeedScript 
support  utilities  all  on  one  disk  (including 
full  documentation) 


Hi 


copies  of  COMPUTE'S 


■  E3a  Send  me 

SpeedScript  Dislt. 

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airmail.) 


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G-15 


FEEDBACK 


Questions  and 

answers 

about  converting 

programs 

from  Commodore 

format  to 

tBNt,  KoalaPads, 

calendars, 

BBSs,  and  more 


Three  Questions 

Is  it  possible  to  convert  Com- 
modore type-in  programs  to 
IBM-compatible  format  in  a  rel- 
atively easy  way  for  those 
witfi  limited  knowledge  of  GW- 
BASIC  or  machine  language 
programming? 

As  I  am  changing  over  to  a 
PC,  am  I  right  in  assuming 
that  an  alternative  version  of 
COMPUTE  thai  is  PC  specific 
and  excludes  the  Gazette  sec- 
tion will  be  available? 

From  my  current  address  la- 
bel on  my  magazine,  do  I  sur- 
mise correctly  that  my  sub- 
scription is  current  through 
June  1991? 

C.  W.  M.  ANDERSON 
SANDTON.  SOUTH  AFRICA 

Commodore  BASIC  and  GW- 
BASIC  are  similar  in  many  re- 
spects, and  some  elementary 
programs  entered  in  one  lan- 
guage will  run  if  entered  into 
the  other  Simple  print  state- 
ments, mathematical  formu- 
las, and  commands  such  as 
GOSUB.  GOTO.  IF-THEN, 
and  FOR-NEXT  pose  few  prob- 
lems when  mal<ing  the 
change  from  one  version  to 
the  other  Problems  arise,  how- 
ever, when  it  comes  to  colors, 
machine  language  routines. 
PEEKS  and  POKEs.  and  other 
commands  that  are  machine 
specific.  Some  commands  in 
BASIC  7.0  for  the  128,  for  ex- 
ample, would  cause  a  64  to 
crash.  There  are  ways  around 
many  of  these  problems,  but 
it  usually  tal<es  a  good  worl<- 
ing  knowledge  of  BASIC  to 
make  the  conversion  work. 

If  you  are  subscribing  to 
COMPUTE'S  Gazette  edition, 
you  already  are  receiving  ail 
the  PC-related  material  that 
we  publish  each  month. 
There's  no  reason  to  change 
your  subscription  unless  you 
want  to  drop  the  64/128  cov- 
erage: the  price  is  the  same. 
Some  COMPUTE  subscrib- 
ers, however,  do  not  get  the 
64/128  material. 


The  month  and  year  print- 
ed on  address  labels  indicate 
the  final  edition  of  your  cur- 
rent subscription.  Since  the 
June  issue  was  the  last  one 
you  were  scheduled  to  re- 
ceive, I  hope  you  renewed 
your  subscription  in  time  to 
read  this  reply 

What's  a  Koala? 

I  subscribe  to  Gazette  Disk, 
and  I  enjoy  your  "Gallery," 
but,  forgive  me,  what  is  a  Ko- 
ala? I  gather  that  it  is  more 
than  a  marsupial.  Do  you 
need  light  pens  or  a  mouse  to 
create  graphics  with  it? 

One  more  comment.  Could 
you  explain  why  your  new 
GOS  (Gazette  Operating  Sys- 
tem) menu  on  Gazette  Disk 
will  not  allow  me  to  directly 
load  any  previous  Gazette 
Disk  programs?  it  gives  the 
disk  information,  but  the  selec- 
tion turns  blue  and  sits  there. 

JOSEPH  RUFFINI 
NORANDA.  PO 
CANADA 

A  KoalaPad  is  a  graphics  tab- 
let that  connects  by  cable  to 
a  64's  joystick  port.  With  its  ac- 
companying software,  you 
can  create  colorful  pictures  on- 
screen by  moving  your  finger 
or  a  stylus  across  the  pad's 
surface  just  as  if  you  were 
drawing  a  picture  with  pencil 
and  paper  The  pad  is  no  long- 
er in  production,  but  used 
units  can  often  be  found.  Its 
multicolor  format  is  a  popular 
one  with  Commodore  artists. 
The  new  Gazette  Operat- 
ing System  is  compatible 
with  pre-GOS  disks,  so  you 
should  be  able  to  run  pro- 
grams from  them.  Load  and 
run  the  menu  program  that 
contains  GOS:  then  swap 
disks.  Now  click  on  the  disk 
icon.  When  the  disk  menu  ap- 
pears, click  on  Directory. 
GOS  will  read  the  current 
disk's  directory  and  print  it  in 
a  window.  Scroll  through  the  ti- 
tles and  click  on  the  program 


you  wish  to  run.  The  red 
band  highlighting  your  selec- 
tion wilt  turn  blue.  Click  again 
on  the  disk  icon  and  select 
Run  Program  when  this  win- 
dow opens.  GOS  has  been 
streamlined  to  make  it  oper- 
ate faster  than  it  did  original- 
ly, but  you  should  stilt  be  able 
to  access  and  run  other 
disks.  It  also  lets  you  copy 
disks  and  files,  delete  and  re- 
name files,  obtain  disk  and  pro- 
gram information,  print  files, 
and  perform  numerous  other 
applications  with  joystick  or 
cursor  keys. 

Wide  Open  Spaces 

I  have  recently  started  typing 
in  a  few  Gazette  programs 
with  The  Automatic  Proofread- 
er Since  I  am  not  a  program- 
mer, my  understanding  of 
what  I  am  typing  is  rather  lim- 
ited. Because  the  listings  in 
your  magazine  are  printed  in 
columns,  it  is  not  always 
clear  when  to  leave  spaces. 

HANS  SPARREBOOM 
TOFIELD.  AB 
CANADA 


When  entering  programs  in 
Commodore  BASIC,  spaces 
are  usually  optional.  Program- 
mers may  put  spaces  be- 
tween words,  variables,  or 
commands  in  their  listings  to 
make  them  more  readable, 
but  the  computer  doesn  't  re- 
quire them.  Most  program- 
mers do  not  include  spaces 
simply  because  it  saves 
space,  computer  memory, 
and  typing  time.  If  they  leave 
them  in  and  a  column  line  be- 
gins with  a  space,  our  listing 
program  will  usually  print  the 
word  SPACE  within  brackets. 
Since  most  spaces  are  option- 
al. The  Automatic  Proofreader 
ignores  them  also  unless 
they  fait  between  quotation 
marks.  To  illustrate,  load  and 
run  Proofreader;  then  enter 
the  following  statement. 

100IFA$<>'T'TH£N100 


G.16        COMPUTE 


OMNI 
TIME  CAPSULES 


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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  161 


Circle  ReadBf  Service  number  112 


In  English  the  line  reads,  "If  A-strIng 
does  not  equal  the  letter  Y,  then  go  to 
line  100. "  This  line  could  be  used  in  a  state- 
ment to  halt  a  program  until  the  letter  Y — 
and  only  the  letter  Y — on  the  keyboard  is 
pressed. 

Proofreader  should  print  MJ  in  the  up- 
per left  corner  of  your  screen  when  you 
press  Return.  Now  go  back,  delete  all  the 
spaces,  and  press  Return  again.  You 
should  still  get  MJ,  indicating  the  line  is 
still  entered  correctly  Spaces  make 
code  easier  to  read,  but  often  they  are  op- 
tional to  the  64. 

Now  go  back  and  insert  a  space  after 
the  first  quotation  mark  and  In  front  of  the 
Y  and  try  it.  Proofreader  will  return  a  dif- 
ferent value  this  time  because  "  Y"  is  not 
the  same  thing  as  "Y"  and  it  would  affect 
how  the  program  runs. 

Diary  Needed 

I'm  an  active  14-year-old  looking  for  a  64 
program  tliat  is  a  diary. 

BRIAN  S  MULCAHEY 
HAMILTON,  OH 

Almost  any  word  processor  could  be 
used  as  a  diary  You  could  write  as  little 
or  as  much  as  you  want  and  then  save 
each  entry  with  a  filename  that  repre- 
sents the  date,  such  as  SEP20.  There  is 
a  program  called  Notepad  64  (Novem- 
ber 1988)  that  could  prove  useful.  This 
machine  language  program  resides  in 


Ot-         EMERGENCY  COMMODORE  START-UP  KITS     O* 

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Fax  9U  357-62^3 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  128 


Heart  Attack. 

Fight  it  with  a 

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ASSGEIATION' 
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Originally  developed  as  a  soflwara  package,  then  converted  to  a  readable 
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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  197 


G-17 


FEEDBACK 


memory  while  your  computer 
Is  working  on  another  BASIC 
program.  This  means  you  can 
call  it  up  at  the  touch  of  a 
key,  jot  down  some  thoughts, 
and  then  continue  with  your 
BASIC  program.  You  can  also 
save  the  notes  with  any  file- 
name you  like.  One  limitation 
to  the  program,  however,  is 
that  each  note  can  be  no 
more  than  1000  characters  in 
length.  That's  enough  to  fill 
one  screen.  Back  issues  of 
this  disk  and  any  other 
Gazette  Disk  prior  to  October 
1990  can  be  ordered  from 
our  Greensboro,  North  Caroli- 
na, office  for  $5,  plus  $2  for 
shipping  and  handling. 

Worldwide  User  Group 

I  am  working  to  start  a  world- 
wide association  of  Commo- 
dore user  groups.  As  support 
for  the  64  dwindles,  user 
groups  play  a  more  important 
role  in  supplying  users  with 
help  and  information.  I  be- 
lieve an  association  of  user 
groups  would  be  beneficial,  es- 
pecially for  smaller  groups. 

I  would  love  to  hear  from  us- 
er groups  wfio  would  like  to 
help  me  organize  this  group 
or  who  would  like  to  join  it. 
Just  drop  me  a  line,  and  I'll 
bring  you  up-to-date  on 
what's  happening  so  far. 

JOSH  JACOBY 
98-1639  HAPAKI  ST. 
AIEA.  HI  96701 


Keep  Gazette  posted  about 
your  activities.  Josh.  User 
groups  represent  a  great  re- 
source of  Information  for  Com- 
modore users,  and  we  encour- 
age their  growth.  In  this  issue 
we  finish  our  two-part  listing 
of  user  groups  in  the  U.S.  and 
other  countries,  if  you  are  not 
already  a  member,  we  recom- 
mend you  contact  a  group  in 
your  area  or  see  about  joining 
one  by  mail. 

Back  fo  the  Boards 

Rick  Lembree's   article  on 


BBSs  (f\^arch  1991)  was  an  ex- 
cellent introduction  to  what 
has  become  one  of  the  last 
bastions  of  dedicated  Commo- 
dore users.  Using  a  BBS  is 
the  best  way  passible  to  sup- 
port each  other  and  enjoy  the 
potential  of  the  still-powerful 
64s  and  128s. 

Volunteering  as  a  sysop  is 
a  rewarding  experience,  not 
only  for  the  knowledge 
gained,  but  tor  the  enjoyment 
of  knowing  that  you  are  pro- 
viding others  with  a  medium 
for  sharing  and  communicat- 
ing. If  you  want  to  try  your 
hand  at  running  a  board, 
there  still  are  plenty  of  poten- 
tial members  out  there  who 
would  eagerly  join  a  new 
board.  I  especially  urge  Com- 
modore users  to  participate 
on  a  local  BBS.  Any  comput- 
er user  who  doesn't  is  miss- 
ing out  on  an  excellent  re- 
source of  knowledge  and  en- 
tertainment that  is  easily  avail- 
able to  anyone  with  a  mo- 
dem. I'm  sure  many  COM- 
PUTE readers  would  be  inter- 
ested in  reading  more  articles 
about  operating  a  BBS,  as 
well  as  about  the  many  fea- 
tures different  boards  have  to 
offer. 

FREDERICK  T  MERRITT 
ST  PAUL.  MN 

At  the  end  of  your  BBS  article 
in  the  March  issue,  the  suppli- 
er of  the  C-A/ef  system  was  list- 
ed incorrectly.  The  correct 
name  is  Perspective  Soft- 
ware. The  BBS  number  for  sup- 
port of  this  package  is  (313) 
981-1524.  Also,  I  feel  that 
this  system  was  not  given 
enough  credit  as  a  commer- 
cial BBS  available  for  the  64. 

JEFF  FENSTERMAKER 
NEWBURY.  OH 

Thanks  for  bringing  the  correc- 
tion to  our  attention,  Jeff.  Be- 
cause C-Net  was  last  on  our 
list  of  commercial  systems  for 
the  64  does  not  mean  it  was 
considered  the  least.  We  sim- 


ply tried  to  list  as  many  of  the 
current  BBS  products  as  we 
could  find  for  our  readers'  con- 
venience, and  on  any  list 
someone  has  to  be  last.  The 
listing  was  not  meant  to  be  an 
endorsement  by  either  f^r. 
Lembree  or  Gazette. 

Bug-Swatter 

Several  readers  wrote  in  to 
say  that  they  have  experi- 
enced problems  with  Cross 
Aid  {March  1991)  when  they 
try  to  use  Shift-D  to  delete  mis- 
spelled or  unwanted  words. 
The  documentation  was  not 
clear  in  stating  that  you  must 
first  enter  maintenance  mode 
by  entering  the  word  that's  to 
be  deleted,  followed  by  Shift- 
Return.  The  delete  function 
can  be  invoked  by  pressing 
Control-D  to  erase  the  word. 

Several  readers  also  informed 
us  of  a  problem  with  Castalia 
(May  1991).  We  discovered  it 
has  a  peculiarity  that  affects 
some  machines  at  some 
times.  The  problem  causes 
the  screen  to  go  blank  when 
you  first  run  the  program.  If 
you  experience  this  situation, 
there  is  no  danger  or  program- 
ming fix  required;  just  try  run- 
ning the  game  again.  On  the 
128,  the  problem  is  especial- 
ly easy  to  fix.  If  the  problem  oc- 
curs, it  only  does  so  when  an 
attempt  is  made  to  run  the  pro- 
gram for  the  first  time  after 
powering  up.  if  this  happens, 
reset  the  computer  to  64 
mode  by  holding  down  the 
Commodore  key  while  press- 
ing the  reset  button.  You 
should  have  no  problem  the 
next  time  the  program  loads. 


If  you  have  a  question,  com- 
ment, or  problem,  we  want  to 
hear  from  you.  Send  your  let- 
ters to  Gazette  Feedback. 
COfvlPUTE  Publications,  324 
West  Wendover  Avenue, 
Suite  200,  Greensboro,  North 
Carolina  27408.  D 


G-18        COMPUTE 


GEOS 


Steve  Vander  Ark 


Teiecommunicating 

with  GEOS 

requires  special 

attention.  Here 

are  some  tips  to 

mal(e  IHe 

process  easier. 


GO  ONLINE 
WITH  GEOS 

This  won't  come  as  a  big  sur- 
prise to  many  of  you.  If  you 
haven't  already  discovered  it, 
you've  certainly  read  articles 
on  the  subject  or  heard  com- 
puter users  expound  about  it. 
/f  is  telecommunicating,  and  it 
is  great. 

It's  great,  but  it's  also  con- 
fusing, intimidating,  and  a 
whole  lot  of  other  things  that 
keep  many  people  from  plug- 
ging in  a  modem  and  dialing 
up  a  bulletin  board  system 
(BBS).  I  avoided  telecommuni- 
cations tor  these  reasons  for  a 
long  time.  1  was  afraid  I  would 
make  a  fool  of  myself  trying  to 
learn  my  way  around.  I 
thought  I'd  find  a  hostile  world 
full  of  people  who  were  in  the 
know  and  wouldn't  be  too  hap- 
py dealing  with  a  novice  pok- 
ing around  at  300  baud. 

Boy,  was  I  wrong.  When  a 
friend  finally  convinced  me  to 
hook  up  his  modem  on  my 
128  and  I  timidly  dialed  a  lo- 
cal BBS  number,  I  had  no  idea 
what  a  giant  leap  I  was  taking. 
Over  the  next  four  months,  I  dis- 
covered a  lot  of  new  computer 
friends  who  didn't  give  a  hoot 
that  I  needed  to  call  up  a 
menu  every  time  or  that  I  ac- 
cidentally logged  myself  off 
when  I  meant  to  upload  a  file. 
They  offered  support,  advice, 
a  little  good-natured  teasing, 
and  friendship. 

Now  I'm  online  all  the  time. 
This  electronic  alternative  re- 
ality is  populated  by  a  wide  va- 
riety of  users.  They  call  using 
IBMs,  Macs,  Amigas,  and,  of 
course,  Commodores. 

That's  where  GEOS  comes 
in.  It  wasn't  long  before  I  dis- 
covered a  number  of  people 
on  various  local  BBSs  who 
shared  my  enthusiasm  for 
GEOS,  and  we  began  compar- 
ing notes.  We  exchanged  ide- 
as, gave  each  other  hints  for 
using  various  applications, 


and  swapped  utilities  down- 
loaded from  other  BBSs. 

But  telecommunicating 
with  GEOS  requires  some  spe- 
cial rules.  GEOS  has  its  own 
unique  way  of  running  a  Com- 
modore computer,  and  termi- 
nal software  and  bulletin 
boards  aren't  designed  to  han- 
dle the  differences.  The  stum- 
bling block  is  the  structure  of 
GEOS  disk  files,  A  file  exists 
on  a  disk  as  a  scattering  of  in- 
dividual blocks  of  data,  linked 
together  with  predefined  cod- 
ing. GEOS  uses  a  different 
code  from  the  one  built  into 
the  64's  system,  which  means 
that  if  you  try  to  use  normal 
Commodore  file  commands 
on  a  GEOS  file,  the  system 
won't  know  how  to  put  the  var- 
ious chunks  back  together. 
That's  why  you  can't  copy  a 
GEOS  file  using  a  normal  file 
copier;  the  same  is  true  for 
uploading  or  downloading. 

In  order  to  send  or  receive 
a  GEOS  file  by  modem,  it 
must  be  converted  temporari- 
ly into  Commodore  DOS-com- 
patible format.  William  Cole- 
man has  written  a  conversion 
utility  called  Convert,  which 
has  become  something  of  an 
unofficial  standard  for  han- 
dling GEOS  files  online.  This 
utility  should  be  the  first 
GEOS  file  you  download.  It 
can  be  loaded  and  run  with  BA- 
SIC and  will  convert  a  pro- 
gram or  sequential  file  to  one 
that  can  be  used  by  GEOS. 
Once  you  have  Convert, 
you're  in  business. 

Any  GEOS  file  you  down- 
load using  your  normal  termi- 
nal program  will  be  a  standard 
sequential  or  program  file  un- 
til you  switch  into  GEOS  and 
run  Convert:  the  whole  proc- 
ess takes  a  matter  of  a  few  sec- 
onds. Convert  can  work  both 
ways.  If  you  have  a  GEOS  file 
that  you'd  like  to  upload,  you 
can  convert  it  into  a  sequen- 
tial or  program  file  that  your  ter- 
minal program  can  handle. 
Converf  can  be  found  on  Quan- 


tumLink  and  on  many  local 
BBSs.  {File  Converter  is  a  sim- 
ilar program  published  in  COM- 
PUTERS Gazette,  April  1989,) 
If  you'd  rather  stay  in  GEOS 
without  returning  to  the  Com- 
modore DOS,  there  is  one  ter- 
minal program  available 
which  operates  within  the 
GEOS  environment.  It  in- 
cludes the  Convert  utility  as  an 
option,  which  makes  handling 
GEOSfiles  a  breeze.  This  pro- 
gram is  called  geoTerm.  It, 
too,  was  written  by  Coleman, 
with  versions  available  for  the 
64  and  the  128,  Each  version 
includes  many  features,  includ- 
ing a  9K  capture  buffer  for  the 
64  and  a  30K  buffer  for  the 
128,  programmable  function 
keys,  built-in  utilities  to  convert 
the  buffer  to  and  from  true  AS- 
CII and  PET  ASCII,  as  well  as 
the  above-mentioned  Convert 
program. 

The  screen  can  be  run  in 
40,  53,  or  80  columns.  You 
can  also  access  either  drive 
for  uploads  or  downloads, 
scratch  files,  and  so  on. 

Whether  you  use  geoTerm; 
available  from  flUW magazine, 
or  another  terminal  program, 
you'll  find  many  GEOS  users 
out  there  who  are  glad  to  hear 
from  you.  BBS  Post,  a  bulletin 
board  in  Michigan,  has  a 
GEOS  file  area.  The  sysop,  Bis- 
mark,  says  he  gets  more  calls 
for  the  Commodore  area  on 
his  IBM  board  than  for  any  oth- 
er. I've  put  many  of  the  public 
domain  utilities  mentioned  in 
this  column  on  BBS  Post.  If 
you  call  long  distance,  you 
may  download  GEOS  files  on 
your  first  call.  The  number  is 
(616)531-1346. 

For  the  price  of  a  long  dis- 
tance call,  it's  not  a  bad  place 
to  start.  But  there  are  probably 
people  on  bulletin  boards 
right  in  your  hometown  who 
would  love  to  hear  from  you. 
Why  not  give  them  a  call? 

Steve  Vander  Ark  can  be 
reached  on  QuantunnUnk.  His 
tiandle  is  SteveVU.  n 

G-19 


MACHINE  LANGUAGE 


Jim  Butterfield 


Move  sprites, 

draw  lines,  nudge 

integers,  and 

do  other  clever 

things  with 

tiie  lieip  of  binary 

fractions 


GIVE  IT  A  NUDGE 
WITH  BINARY 
FRAQIONS 

BASIC  uses  a  number  system 
called  floating  point  (or  scien- 
tific notation),  which  is  power- 
ful but  complex  to  code  in  ma- 
chine language.  Often,  you 
can  accomplish  what  you 
need  through  the  use  of  fixed- 
point  binary  fractions, 

In  conventional  base  10 
mathematics,  if  you  divide  7 
by  3,  the  answer  is  2  with  a  re- 
mainder. But  if  we  continue 
the  division,  we  establish  that 
7  divided  by  3  gives 
2,33333  .  .  ,  , 

Exactly  the  same  thing  hap- 
pens in  binary  calculations.  In 
binary,  we  might  write  'h  as 
7o111  divided  by  %11;  using 
any  of  several  division  meth- 
ods, we  produce  a  first  result 
of  %10  with  a  remainder  of  1. 
But  if  we  don't  stop  at  the  "bi- 
nary point"  equivalent  of  a  dec- 
imal point  and  provide  some- 
where to  store  the  extra  fraction- 
al result,  we  will  generate 
%10. 01010101  .  .  .  and  cut 
off  the  endless  fraction. 

In  hexadecimal  notation,  V2 
works  out  neatly  as  $.80,  but 
Vs  is  the  repeating  series 
$.555  .... 

You've  noted  that  you  must 
trim  an  endless  value  at  some 
point.  In  machine  language 
coding,  that  amounts  to  decid- 
ing how  many  bytes  you  will 
use  to  hold  the  fractions. 
Roughly  speai<ing,  each  byte 
gives  the  equivalent  of  2.4  deci- 
mal digits  of  accuracy. 

Binary  fractions  fit  nicely  in- 
to the  whole  scheme  of  math 
coding.  Such  numbers  add, 
subtract,  multiply  and  divide 
in  the  same  way  as  integers. 
For  example,  you  might  want 
to  multiply  a  value  by  8  and 
then  divide  by  5  to  convert 
miles  to  kilometers. 

Perhaps  the  most  popular 
use  of  binary  fractions  is  to 


nudge  an  integer  value  high- 
er. For  example,  suppose  you 
started  with  zero  and  added  a 
value  of  V3  repeatedly.  The  in- 
teger part  would  bump  to  the 
next  higher  value  every  three 
operations.  This  kind  of  nudg- 
ing has  many  applications  in 
programming, 

A  programmer  might  be  han- 
dling one  or  more  sprites; 
each  sprite  is  expected  to 
move  from  time  to  time.  How 
do  we  control  its  speed?  Sup- 
pose we  want  it  to  move  grad- 
ually, without  leaping  across 
the  screen.  Let's  say  we  just 
want  to  nudge  its  position.  By 
repeatedly  adding  fractional 
values  to  its  location,  we  will 
eventually  cause  the  sprite's  lo- 
cation to  move  to  the  next  pix- 
el at  regular  intervals. 

When  working  in  high-reso- 
lution graphics,  it's  often  desir- 
able to  draw  a  line  that's  not 
quite  horizontal  (or  vertical). 
Binary  fractions  will  help  us  do 
the  job. 

To  create  a  line  that's  al- 
most horizontal,  you  want  to 
step  across  the  horizontal  (x) 
coordinates,  but  how  do  we 
plot  the  vertical  (y)  coordi- 
nates for  each  line?  Nudge 
the  /coordinate  value.  If  the 
line  were  50  pixels  wide  by  10 
pixels  high,  you'd  nudge  the  y 
coordinate  by  a  value  of  Vs;  as 
you  sweep  across  the  50  x pix- 
els, the  y  coordinate  would  trav- 
el exactly  the  10  pixels  that 
are  needed. 

Let's  write  a  small  program 
that  should  be  good  on  almost 
any  Commodore  8-bit  comput- 
er that  will  show  this  kind  of  cal- 
culation. You'll  place  a  value 
to  be  nudged  at  address 
S2100  with  a  fraction  byte  at 
S2101.  You'll  place  the  nudge 
value  at  $2102  and  $2103, 
then  step  through  and  show 
the  result. 

For  easy  display  you'll  start 
the  value  at  $31  (decimal  49). 
This  corresponds  to  the  ASCII 
character  1 ;  you  can  print  it  to 
show  how  it  changes. 


2000    LDA  #$31 
2002    STA    $2100 

You  will  add  Va  (S80)  to  your 
starting  value;  that  allows 
easy  rounding  of  the  result.  A 
hi-res  graphics  line  would 
look  better  with  this  kind  of 
rounding,  for  example. 

2005    LDA  #$80 
2007    STA   $2101 

Now  store  your  nudge  value 
in  $2102  and  $2103.  We  will 
choose  a  value  of  Vs,  hex 
$00.55 

200A  LDA  #$00 

200c  STA    S2102 

20QF  LDA  #$55 

2011  STA    $21 03 

Now  we  have  our  values  in 
place.  We'll  count  our  loop 
through  16  items  (the  initial  val- 
ue plus  15  steps). 

Since  we  started  at  ASCII 
49  (1),  we  should  end  up  five 
full  values  further  along,  at  AS- 
Cll  54  (6).  We  will  use  X  as 
our  loop  counter. 

2014    LDX  #$00 


Foilo 

wing 

is  the 

loop 

Print 

first  a 

nd  then  add 

then  test  to 

see  whether  the  loop  should 

be  repeated. 

2016 

LDA 

$2100 

2019 

JSR 

$FFD2 

201c 

CLC 

201 D 

LDA 

$2101 

2020 

ADC 

$2103 

2023 

STA 

$2101 

2026 

LDA 

$2100 

2029 

ADC 

$2102 

202c 

STA 

$2100 

202F 

INX 

2030 

CPX 

#$10 

2032 

BNE 

$2016 

2034 

RTS 

That's  the  whole  program.  To 
use  this  routine  while  in  BA- 
SIC, type  in  SYS  8192  to 
watch  ttie  character  1  as  it's 
nudged  through  its  range.   □ 


S-20       COMPUTE 


BEGINNER  BASIC 


Larry  Cotton 


Make  your 
programs  so  user- 
friendly  that 
even  beginners  will 
iiave  no 
trouliie  entering 
valid  data. 


MAKE  YOUR 
DATA  ENTRY 
CRASHPROOF 

The  following  general-purpose 
"crashproof"  data  entry  subrou- 
tine can  be  inserted  into  any 
BASIC  program  in  which 
you're  asking  an  inexperi- 
enced user  to  enter  data. 

The  first  decision  is  wheth- 
er to  use  INPUT  or  GET  IN- 
PUT is  easier  to  program,  but 
it's  vulnerable  to  errant  key- 
board presses,  such  as  cursor 
up/down,  Del,  CIr,  and  so  on. 
It's  also  rudely  unforgiving  of 
unexpected  input  data.  GET  re- 
quires more  programming 
and  is  vulnerable  to  garbage 
collection,  a  rather  nasty  habit 
Commodore  computers  have. 

For  a  few  simple  daily  en- 
tries, however,  garbage  collec- 
tion shouldn't  be  a  problem. 
So  let's  use  GET 

First,  let's  have  all  keys  re- 
peat, It's  helpful  when  testing 
the  program,  and  it  can  be 
fun.  Here's  the  first  line  which 
does  that  and  clears  the 
screen: 

10  POKE650,128:PRINTCHR$ 
(147) 

Now  decide  on  a  cursor.  I  pre- 
fer a  nonblinking  one.  It  im- 
plies more  patience.  As  for  its 
appearance,  take  your  pick. 
To  determine  which  cursor 
shape  to  use,  select  a  charac- 
ter from  the  front  of  the  key- 
board keys.  Then  in  immedi- 
ate mode,  enter 

PRINT  ASCC'X") 

This  will  return  the  value  of 
your  preferred  character. 
(See  64  Programmer's  Refer- 
ence Guide  for  a  complete  list- 
ing.) I  like  a  thick  horizontal 
line  made  by  pressing  the 
Commodore  key  and  P  simulta- 
neously. This  returns  a  charac- 
ter string  (CHR$)  value  of 


175.  Two  keys  we  want  to  rec- 
ognize are  the  Return  key  (sig- 
naling completion  of  an  entry) 
and  the  !nst/Del  key  (for  cor- 
recting a  typing  error).  These 
are  defined  as  constants  R$ 
and  D$  respectively.  C$  is 
the  cursor.  The  CHR$  values 
are  from  Reference  Guide. 

20  R$z=CHR$(13):D$=CHR$(20): 
C$=CHR$(175) 

Now  we'll  write  the  crash- 
proof data-gathering  subrou- 
tine itself,  which  yields  raw 
data  in  string  form  which  is  giv- 
en the  arbitrary  designation  of 
B$.  Strings  can  contain  let- 
ters, numbers,  punctuation — 
the  works.  The  subroutine 
can  begin  anywhere,  so  let's 
use  line  100.  Then  change  B$ 
to  X$.  Using  VAL  with  X$,  you 
may  extract  the  whole  string 
or  just  the  numbers.  You  can 
select  a  portion  of  XS  by  us- 
ing RIGHTS,  LEFTS,  or  MID$. 
End  the  program  for  now. 

30  GOSUB100:X$=S$:END 

The  first  thing  to  do  with 
the  input  routine  is  clear  out 
BS;  then  reset  the  line  length 
to  zero.  More  on  that  later. 

100  B$="  ":U0 

Now  print  your  cursor  (de- 
fined in  line  20).  The  semico- 
lon ensures  that  anything  af- 
ter the  cursor  will  be  printed 
on  the  same  line. 

110  PRINTCS; 

Here's  where  we  use  the 
GET  statement. 

120  GETA$:IFAS= '  "THEN120 

The  computer  goes  into  a 
loop  until  the  user  presses  a 
key.  When  any  key  is 
pressed,  that  single  character 
becomes  A$.  A$  will  be  exam- 
ined four  times.  The  first  time 
checks  for  the  Return  key; 


130  IFAS=R$THENPRmTD$A$;: 
RETURN 

if  the  Return  key  is 
pressed,  the  cursor  moves 
back  one  space,  deleting  it- 
self, and  then  moves  to  the 
next  line.  The  subroutine 
ends  with  a  RETURN  state- 
ment. 

The  second  check  is  for 
the  Del  key,  which  indicates 
that  the  user  is  backtracking 
and  erasing  previously  typed 
data, 

140  IFA$=D$THENGOSUB210: 

GOTO110 

At  line  210  we  start  anoth- 
er short  subroutine  that  will  do 
the  actual  deleting.  Then  we 
want  to  go  back  to  line  110  to 
print  the  cursor  again.  This 
time  we're  not  ready  to  jump 
out  of  the  subroutine  yet; 
we're  just  deleting  characters. 

The  third  check  is  impor- 
tant but  fairly  complicated. 
We  want  to  limit  the  charac- 
ters which  can  be  typed. 
We'll  do  that  by  examining 
their  CHR$  values.  Luckily, 
the  values  we  need  are  in  the 
range  of  32  to  95,  inclusive. 
According  to  the  ASCII  and 
CHRS  code  chart  in  Program- 
mer's Reference  Guide,  this 
will  encompass  the  space,  all 
punctuation,  all  the  numbers, 
all  the  letters  of  the  alphabet 
(capitals  only),  and  a  few  odd- 
ball symbols,  such  as  the  Brit- 
ish pound  sign,  brackets,  and 
the  left-  and  up-arrow  keys. 
You  can  restrict  that  further  if 
you  wish.  Here's  the  check: 

150  IM$<CHR$(32)0RA$>CHR$ 
(95)0RA$=HR$(34)THEN12a 

Next  month  I'll  repeat  this 
line  with  a  detailed  explana- 
tion of  it.  Meanwhile,  try  to  fig- 
ure out  why  we  don't  want 
CHR$(34)  and  what  we'll  do 
next  to  make  your  programs 
virtually  crashproof  in  the 
hands  of  computer  novices.  □ 

G-21 


PROGRAMMER'S  PAGE 


Randy  Thompson 


Here's  a  whole 

page  of  nifty 

tips  for  the  64 

submitted 

by  one  reader. 


GEZA'S  PAGE 

Every  so  often  someone 
sends  me  a  tip  that  really 
sparks  my  interest,  and  I  may 
center  an  entire  column 
around  suchi  a  tip.  Just  last 
week  I  got  a  letter  from  Geza 
Lucz  of  La  Jolla,  California, 
tfiat  contained  16  great  tips. 
Unfortunately,  we  don't  fiave 
room  for  all  of  them,  but  fiere 
are  4  of  thie  best. 

Although  the  byline  at  the 
top  of  this  column  is  mine,  the 
credit  and  the  "Programmer's 
Page"  award  money  go  to 
Geza.  Thanks  for  the  code! 

OCEAN 

This  program  makes  the  64's 
characters  roll  like  the  waves 
in  the  ocean.  There  are 
sound  effects,  too. 

JX  100  FOR  1=49152  TO  49 
258:READ  D:C=C+D: 
POKE    I, D: NEXT 

KX    110    IF    C016497    THEN 
{SPACE}PRINT    "ERR 
OR    IN    DATA    STATEH 
ENTS":STOP 

CP  120  SYS  49152 

DA  130  POKE  54278, 240:PO 
KE  54276, 129:POKE 
54273, 34:POKE  54 
272,75 

GK  140  FOR  1=1  TO  15 : POK 
E  54296, I:FOR  J=l 
TO  50: NEXT: NEXT 

MP  150  FOR  1-15  TO  1  STE 
P  -1:P0KE  54296,  I 
;FOR  J=l  TO  200:N 
EXT: NEXT 

SR  160  FOR  1=1  TO  6B0+IN 
T(RND{1)*1000) :NE 
XT 

KR  170  GOTO  130 

XB  180  DATA  120,169,35,1 
62,192,141,20,3,1 
42,21,3,169,1,141 
,18,208,133,251,1 
33,254 

XH  190  DATA  173,17,208,4 
1,127,141,17,208, 
169,129,141,26,20 
8,88,96,173,25,20 
8,141 

JB  230  DATA  25,208,48,7, 
173,13,220,88,76, 
49,234,166,251,23 
2,232,232,232,232 
,232 

EH  210  DATA  232,232,142, 
18,208,134,251,22 
8,254,208,4,230,2 


51,230,254,166,25 
3,232 

CD  2  20  DATA  138,41,15,17 
0,134,253,189,91, 
192,141,22,208,76 
,188,254,200,201, 
202,203 

BS  230  DATA  204,205,206, 
207,207,206,205,2 
04,203,202,201,20 
0 

FREEZE! 

This  short  machine  language 
routine  freezes  program  execu- 
tion whenever  you  hold  down 
the  64's  Shift  key.  You  can 
load  and  run  almost  any 
program  and  use  Shift  as  a 
Pause  key,  If  you  need  to 
pause  a  program  so  you  can 
go  off  and  answer  the  phone, 
the  Shift  Lock  key  keeps  the 
software  frozen  until  you're 
ready  for  it.  This  freeze  fea- 
ture is  also  great  for  program- 
mers who  need  to  pause  the 
computer  when  listing  their 
programs  to  the  screen. 

EX  100  FOR  1=49152  TO  49 

191:READ  D:POKE  I 

,D:NEXT:SYS  49152 
HF  110  DATA  120,169,26,1 

62,192, 141,20,3 
KG  120  DATA  142,21,3,38, 

96,120,169,234,16 

2 
EF  139  DATA  49,141,21,3, 

142,20,3,88,96,32 
SR  140  DATA  135,234,174, 

141,2,224,1,240,2 

46 
KP  150  DATA  76,49,234,0 

COMMAND  HIGHLIGHT 

Another  practical  utility  is  this 
program  that  highlights  all  of 
the  commands  in  a  BASIC  list- 
ing. Line  numbers  and  varia- 
bles appear  in  the  usual  blue 
color,  while  BASIC  com- 
mands appear  in  white. 

CC  100  FOR  1=49152  TO  49 
230:READ  D:C=C+D: 
POKE  1,0: NEXT 

CH  110  IF  C011843  THEN 
(SPACE) PRINT  "ERR 
OR  IN  DATA  STATEH 
EHTS" :STOP 

CP  120  SYS  49152 

HG  130  DATA  169,11,162,1 
92,141,6,3,142,7, 
3 


EB  140  DATA  96,16,36,36, 

15,48,32,201,255, 

240 
GP  150  DATA  28,133,251,1 

34,252,132,254,16 

6,253,224 
QB  160  DATA  5,240,7,169, 

5,133,253,32,210, 

255 
DG  170  DATA  165,251,166, 

252,164,254,76,36 

,167,133 
PQ  180  DATA  251,134,252, 

132,254,166,253,2 

24,154,240 
DJ  190  DATA  7,169,154,13 

3,253,32,210,255, 

165,251 
PP    200    DATA    166,252,164, 

254,76,243,166,20 

8,14 

GETTING  DIZZY? 

A  close  relative  of  the  ocean 
trick,  this  program  is  definitely 
not  recommended  for  the  64 
owner  with  a  weak  stomach. 

RS  100  FOR  1=49152  TO  49 

266:READ  D:C»=C+D: 

POKE    I, D: NEXT 
EG    110    IF   C013471    THEN 

{SPACE}PRINT     "ERR 

OR    IN    DATA    STATEM 

ENTS" :STOP 
HK    120    POKE    16383, 0:SYS 

CSPACE}49152 
RJ    130    DATA    120,169,31,1 

62,192,141,20,3,1 

42,21 
BE  140  DATA  3,169,0,141, 

18,208,173,17,208 

,41 
KX  150  DATA  127,141,17,2 

08,169,129,141,26 

,208,88 
AE  160  DATA  96,173,25,20 

8,141,25,208,48,7 

,173 
GS  170  DATA  13,220,88,76 

,49,234,230,254,1 

65,254 
QP  180  DATA  41,3,208,21, 

166,251,232,133,4 

1,15 
KR  190  DATA  133,251,170, 

189,78,192,141,17 

,208,189,94,192 
JC  200  DATA  141,22,208,7 

6,188,254,24,25 
AE  210  DATA  26,27,28,29, 

30,31,31,33,29,28 
EG  220  DATA  27,26,25,24, 

203,204,205,206,2 

07,206 
GG  230  DATA  205,204,203, 

202,201,200,200,2 

01,202,203,0,0,0, 

0.0  — 


G-22   COMPUTE 


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DIVERSIONS 


Fred  D'Ignazio 


The  robot 

revolution  may 

have  started 

in  a  way  totaiiy 

dilferent  trom 

wliat  we  imagined. 


ROBOTS 
IN  DISGUISE 

I  was  on  my  way  to  Dubuque, 
Iowa,  last  week  to  train  a 
group  of  intrepid  teachers  in 
the  art  of  scavenged  multime- 
dia. As  1  left  tfie  airplane  for  a 
layover  in  Chiicago's  O'Hare  Air- 
port, I  felt  tfie  urge  to  make  a 
brief  stop  at  tfie  nearest  men's 
room.  After  I  conducted  my 
business,  I  made  my  custom- 
ary stop  at  a  washroom  sink. 
The  sink  was  broken.  No  han- 
dles on  the  water  faucet.  No 
water.  I  turned  to  another 
sink.  Its  handles  were  also  miss- 
ing. I  turned  to  another  sink. 
All  the  handles  were  missing. 

Suddenly  !  heard  the 
sound  of  running  water.  1 
turned  around.  Two  men  were 
standing  in  front  of  two  sinks. 
Two  water  faucets  were  gush- 
ing gurgling  water  into  two 
sink  bowls.  The  sinks  weren't 
broken  after  all! 

I  slipped  back  into  the  bath- 
room, quietly  placed  my  bags 
onto  the  bathroom  floor,  and 
tried  to  appear  natural  and  in- 
conspicuous until  the  two  men 
at  the  sinks  had  departed. 

OK,  I  thought,  how  did  they 
make  the  sinks  work?  fvly  first 
guess  was  foot  pedals.  After 
all,  there  were  no  faucet  han- 
dles, and  I  hadn't  noticed  ei- 
ther man  touching  anything  on 
the  sink.  It  hadXo  be  pedals. 

I  crouched  in  front  of  one  of 
the  sinks.  No  pedal,  fvlaybe 
the  pedal  was  tucked  under- 
neath the  sink  bowl.  1  reached 
under  the  bowl,  searching  for 
the  mysterious  device. 

Suddenly  a  man  walked  in- 
to the  room.  He  immediately 
halted  when  he  saw  me  under 
the  sink.  I'm  sure  he  was  won- 
dering what  a  small,  bearded 
man  in  a  raincoat  was  doing  in 
an  airport  bathroom  crawling 
around  under  a  sink. 

"Sink  inspector,"  I  said,  smil- 
ing and  trying  to  appear  non- 
chalant. "We  have  to  do  this  pe- 


riodically." I  kind  of  mumbled 
the  last  part  because  the  fel- 
low took  a  brief,  critical  look  at 
this  "sink  inspector,"  smirked, 
and  shot  out  of  the  bathroom. 

I  stood  up,  still  trying  to  fig- 
ure out  how  to  work  the  sink's 
faucets,  fvlaybe  if  I  stuck  my 
foot  under  the  sink  it  would 
work.  I  lifted  my  leg,  leaned 
way  back,  and  thrust  the  toe 
of  my  shoe  across  the  sink's 
porcelain  underbelly. 

Three  teenagers  entered 
the  bathroom,  jostling  each  oth- 
er and  laughing.  However,  af- 
ter they  saw  me  stroking  the 
sink  with  my  foot,  they  sank  in- 
to immediate,  puzzled  silence. 

"It  itches,"  I  said,  pointing 
at  my  foot.  "This  is  the  only 
way  to  scratch  it."  I  kept  prob- 
ing the  fixtures  beneath  the 
sink  with  my  toes,  desperately 
hoping  I'd  soon  see  water  flow- 
ing into  the  basin. 

The  teenagers  did  their  busi- 
ness and  approached  a  cou- 
ple of  sinks.  Water  instantly 
sprang  from  their  sinks'  fau- 
cets into  the  bowls. 

I  rushed  over  to  the  teen- 
agers' sinks.  "It's  a  miracle," 
I  exclaimed.  I  dropped  to  my 
knees  and  looked  under- 
neath. "How'd  you  do  that?" 

"Little  sensor  right  here, 
dude,"  said  one  of  the  teen- 
agers, pointing  at  a  small  red 
ovat  on  the  wall  that  had  es- 
caped my  acute  observation- 
al powers.  "It's  easy.  You 
stand  in  front  of  the  sink;  you 
get  water.  You  move  away; 
the  water  stops."  The  teen- 
ager stared  at  me  and 
grinned.  "You  from  some  oth- 
er country,  maybe?" 

When  I  was  growing  up  in 
the  1950s  and  1960s,  comput- 
ers were  big,  new,  and  fright- 
ening. In  those  days  we  were 
afraid  that  computers  would 
one  day  be  turned  into  spy  ma- 
chines. They  would  spy  on  us 
average  citizens  and  report  to 
"the  people  in  power."  fvluch 
of  this  image  came  from  the 
book  1984  by  George  Onwell. 


The  future  turned  out  to  be 
completely  different.  Comput- 
ers shrank  from  barn-sized  be- 
hemoths into  cornflake-sized 
chips.  As  they  shrank,  they  dis- 
appeared— into  washing  ma- 
chines, microwaves,  automo- 
biles, watches,  toaster  ovens, 
and  bathroom  scales. 

Instead  of  a  single  big  broth- 
er running  a  single  big  comput- 
er, we  now  have  zillions  and  zil- 
lions of  little  computers  acting 
as  little  brothers.  Little  comput- 
ers are  now  quietly  watching 
us  from  inside  refrigerators,  tell- 
er machines,  filling  stations, 
vending  machines,  and  bath- 
room sinks.  They  help  us  go 
about  our  business  and  then 
patiently  wait  for  the  next  hu- 
man being  to  come  their  way 

For  years  we've  been  wait- 
ing for  the  robot  revolution. 
We've  pictured  it  as  an  elec- 
tromechanical second  coming 
with  robots  who  look  like  hu- 
mans, rolling  off  factory  lines 
to  rescue  human  beings  from 
the  grind  and  toil  of  daily  life. 

fvlaybe  the  robot  revolution 
has  already  started.  Except 
it's  totally  different  from  what 
we  imagined.  Instead  of  giv- 
ing robots  a  human  shape,  we 
are  quietly  giving  them  the 
shape  of  the  comfortable,  fa- 
miliar appliances.  Remember 
General  Electric's  motto:  We 
bring  good  things  to  life. 

Maybe  the  being  !  met  in 
that  O'Hare  bathroom  was  al- 
most alive,  a  primitive  precur- 
sor on  a  new  evolutionary  lad- 
der. Maybe  it  was  a  little  like 
Australopithecus  or  Neander- 
thal man,  a  robot  from  the 
dawn  of  a  new  generation  of 
intelligent  robots.  These  ro- 
bots won't  have  to  have  legs, 
arms,  or  hands.  They  won't 
have  to  resemble  humans. 
That  would  be  too  scary! 

Instead  they'll  just  keep 
evolving  at  a  faster  rate,  while 
retaining  the  outward  appear- 
ance of  our  familiar,  cozy,  old 
appliances.  Except  they  won't 
have  any  handles!  CI 


G-24        COMPUTE 


PROGRAMS 


SPANISH  VOCABULARY 
QUIZ 

By  Christopher  M.  Stoy 
Learning  a  foreign  language  can  be  dif- 
ficult. Not  only  do  you  need  to  learn  a 
new  set  of  grammar  rules,  but  you  must 
also  learn  an  entirely  new  vocabulary. 
The  only  way  to  do  this  is  by  continually 
repeating  the  new  words  until  they  be- 
come second  nature. 

Finding  someone  to  quiz  you  on 
your  new  vocabulary  can  be  equally  dif- 
ficult. After  all.  who  wants  to  sit  around 
asking  you  drill  questions  all  day? 
That's  the  beauty  of  a  computer.  Your 
64  is  happy  to  help  out,  with  software 
such  as  Spanish  Vocabulary  Quiz.  This 
Spanish  tutorial  will  quickly  help  you 
learn  Spanish  words,  and  it'll  never  com- 
plain about  your  poor  pronunciation  or 
your  gringo  accent. 

Getting  Started 

Spanish  Vocabulary  Quiz  is  written  in 
BASIC  with  a  small  machine  language 
subroutine.  To  help  avoid  typing  errors, 
use  The  Automatic  Proofreader  when 
entering  the  BASIC  portion;  see  "Typ- 
ing Aids"  elsewhere  in  this  section. 
When  you've  finished  typing,  be  sure 
to  save  a  copy  of  the  program. 

Enter  the  machine  language  routine 
with  MLX.  our  machine  language  entry 
program;  see  "Typing  Aids"  again. 
When  MLX  prompts,  respond  with  the 
following  values. 

Starting  address:  COOO 
Ending  address:  COBF 

Save  the  machine  language  routine 
with  the  name  SPAN.tvlL  before  you  ex- 
it MLX.  Now  format  a  blank  disk  and 
place  Spanish  Vocabulary  Quiz  on  it. 
Use  this  disk  to  store  the  word  files  you 
create. 


Options 


The  options  menu  contains  five  choic- 
es; 1.  English  Words  2.  Palabras  de  Es- 
paliol  3,  Load  a  Word  File  4.  File  Op- 
tions 5.  Quit 

The  first  two  options  quiz  you  on  Eng- 
lish or  Spanish  words,  respectively.  If 
there  is  no  word  file  in  memory,  you'll 
automatically  be  taken  to  option  3, 

To  load  a  file,  enter  its  name  at  the 


prompt  and  press  Return.  To  see  a  list 
of  files  on  the  disk,  type  a  dollar  sign 
($)  and  press  Return.  When  a  file  has 
been  loaded,  you'll  be  given  a  set  of 
simple  instructions.  Press  Return  to  be- 
gin the  quiz. 

You'll  be  given  a  word  in  English  (or 
Spanish)  and  asked  to  translate  it. 
Type  your  answer  at  the  prompt  and 
press  Return.  If  you  make  a  mistake, 
use  the  Inst/Del  key  to  delete  a  charac- 
ter or  press  Shift-Clr/Home  to  erase 
the  whole  word  and  start  over.  To  en- 
ter accented  letters  such  as  ^,  S,  i,  6, 
or  u,  hold  down  the  Commodore  key 
and  type  the  letter.  Likewise,  to  get  the 
tilde  (n)  character,  hold  down  the  Com- 
modore key  and  press  N.  To  write  an 
upside-down  exclamation  point  (j), 
press  the  Back  Arrow  key.  Make  an  up- 
side-down question  mark  (i)  by  press- 
ing the  slash  {/)  character. 

You're  given  three  chances  to 
guess  the  word.  After  three  incorrect 
guesses,  the  program  provides  the  an- 
swer. If  you  wish  to  see  the  answer  be- 
fore making  three  guesses,  type  a  ques- 
tion mark  at  the  prompt  and  press  Re- 
turn. To  exit  the  quiz  before  all  the 
words  are  asked,  enter  an  asterisk  at 
the  prompt  and  press  Return. 

Scoring 

After  the  quiz  you'll  be  given  the  num- 
ber of  words  you  identified  correctly 
and  your  percentage  of  correct  an- 
swers. Your  score  depends  not  only  on 
how  many  words  you  answered  correct- 
ly but  also  on  how  many  guesses  it 
took  you.  Every  incorrect  answer  will  de- 
crease your  score.  For  example,  in  or- 
der to  obtain  a  perfect  score  of  100  per- 
cent, you  must  answer  every  question 
correctly  on  the  first  try.  A  good  way  to 
study  is  by  going  through  the  same 
list  repeatedly  until  you  can  score  100 
percent. 

File  Options 

The  menu  of  file  options  offers  several 
choices. 

1,  Create  a  Word  File 

2.  Append  to  a  Word  File 

3.  Edit  a  Word  File 

4,  Return  to  Main  Menu 

Create  a  file  when  starting  a  new  word 
list.  First,  enter  the  name  of  the  file. 


Next,  enter  the  English  word  and  then 
the  Spanish  form.  You'll  then  have  a 
chance  to  make  any  corrections,  enter 
more  words,  or  stop. 

Select  Append  to  add  words  to  the 
current  list  in  memory.  It's  a  good  idea 
to  limit  your  list  to  20  words  or  less. 

Edit  a  Word  File  lets  you  make  cor- 
rections to  the  current  word  file.  The 
first  word  in  the  list  will  be  displayed  in 
English  and  Spanish.  Press  E  to  edit 
the  word.  When  editing,  move  the  flash- 
ing cursor  over  the  English  word, 
make  your  changes,  and  then  press  Re- 
turn. Do  the  same  for  the  Spanish 
word.  To  move  on  to  the  next  word, 
press  C  to  continue.  The  program  will 
display  the  next  word  in  the  list.  When 
you've  finished  editing,  press  Q  to  quit 
to  the  options  menu  and  save  any 
changes  you've  made. 


Spanish  Vocabulary  Quiz 

XE  0  REM  COPYRIGHT  1991  -  COMP 
UTE  PUBLICATIONS  INTL  LTD 
-  ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 
RH  10  REM  SPANISH  VOCABULARY  Q 

UIZ  VI. 2 
RC  20  REM(8  SPACES )BY  CHRIS  ST 

OY 
SF  30  ; 

EP  40  GOTO  220B:REM  SETUP 
SC  100  T=0:PRINT"{HOHE) (BLK}"A 

NS"{5  D0WN)":P0KE  49153 

,5:P0KE49157,S 
RX  105  PRINT"<6>"AW$;SPC(20-LE 

N(AW$))"CWHT)>"; :LN=i7: 

GOSUB  200 
GB  110  ON  -(WD$="?")-2* (WDS="* 

")  GOTO  145,700 
MQ  115  SYS  49152 
KH  116  LC=LEN(AN$) :IF  LEN(WDS) 

>LEN(AN$)  THEN  LC=LEN (W 

D$) 
KH  117  PC=INT (PBEK(49212)*100/ 

LC)-INT (PEEK (49213) /2) 
DP  120  IF  PO70  THEN  PRINT" 

(DOWN) (WHT)<MUY  BIEN!  C 

ORRECT ! " : SC=SC+ABS (T-3) 

:C=C+l:GOT0145 
PB  125  T=T+1:IF  T=3  THEN  145 
DM  126  IF  T=l  THEN  POKE  49157, 

245 
XH  127  IF  T=2  THEN  POKE  49153, 

6:P0KE  49157,229 
JX  130  IF  P033  THEN  PRINT" 

{DOWN}il>  ALMOST.  TRY  A 

GAIN.{D0WnT":GOTO  140 
PE  135  PRINT"{D0WN}{2}  SORRY, 

{SPACE} WRONG.  TRY  AGAIN 

.{DOWN}" 
XP  140  GOSUB  4ia:GOTO105 
BX  145  W=W+1:RN% (I)=1:PRINT" 

G-25 


PROGRAMS 


{6>(D0WN]THE  ANSWER  IS 
{SPACE) {WHT}"ANS"<6}.": 
GOSUB  1000: IF  W=X  THEN 
{SPACE} 700 

SX  150  FL=1:GOTO  400 

GX  200  WD$="":POKE  198,0:PHINT 
"  <  " ; 

df  205  get  ke$:if  ke$=""  then 

{spaceJzbs 
xk  206  poke54296, 15:poke54296, 

0 
HQ  210  IF  KE$=CHR$(13)  THEN  PR 

INT: RETURN 
ED  215  IF  KE$=CHR$(17)  OR  KE$= 

CHRS(19)  OR  KE$=CHR$(14 

5)  THEN  205 
FA  217  IF  KE$=CHR$(147)  THEN  F 

OR  ZZ=0  TO  LEN(WD$);PRI 

NTCHRS (20) ; :NEXT:GOTO  2 

30 
GC  220  IF  KE5<>CHR$(20)  THEN  2 

3  5 
HF  225  IF  LEN(WD3)=0  THEN  205 
AC  23  0  WD$=LEFT${WD$,LEN (WD$)- 

1)  :PRItJT"{2    LEFT}< 

(LEF.T)";  :GOTO    205 
PJ    235    IF    LEN(WDS)>I.N    THEN    20S 
KR    240   WD$=WDS+KES: PRINT" 

{LEFT)"KES"<"; 
GE    245    GOTO    205 
GM    300    IF    X<i    THEN    1300 
BP    315    PRINT"{CLR) {WHT){DOWN}" 

TAB{11) "QUJZ    "QTS"    WORD 

S" 
DX    320    PRINTTAB(ll) 'HIXIS    T>" 
HH    325    PRINT"{2    D0WN){6> 

{2  SPACESJI^  WILL  GIVE  Y 

OU  A  WORD  IN  {WHT)"QTS" 

{6>," 

HD  330  PRINT"{DOWN}  THEN  _I_  WIL 
L  ASK  YOU  TO  ENTER  THE 
{ S  PACE }WORD" : PRI NT " 
{DOWN)  I«  {WHT}"0TS"i6} 
n 

JM  335  PRINT"{2  DOWN} {WHT } EXAM 

PLS : " : PRI NT " { DOWN  1 "QT  S ; 

SPC(13) ;0T$ 
GG  340  PRINT"<3}{7  T}"SPC(13)" 

{7  T>":PRINT"{6>"EQS:PR 

INT "{UP} "TAB (20) ; EOS: GO 

SUB  1000 
XH  345  FOR  Z=l  TO  X:RN%(Z)=0:N 

EXT:W=0:SC=0:C=0 
XF  400  I=INT (X*RND(0) )+l:IF  RN 

%  (I)=l  THEN400 
CF  405  PRINT" {CLR} {DOWN) (YELjT 

YPE  YOUR  ANSWER,  THEN  H 

IT  [ (WHT} RETURN {YEL} ] . 

{2  DOWN}" 
SF  410  PRINT"{WHT}"QTS;SPC(13) 

;OT$:PRINT"{3H7   T}"SPC 

(13) "{7    T}":RETURN 
HD    500    QTS="ENGLISH":OTS="SPAN 

ISH":EQ$="THE    WORD":EOS 

="LA  PALABRA" 
PG  505  GOSUB  300:IF  X=0  THEN  2 

100 
QX  510  AW5=EN5(I) :AN$=SP$(I) :G 


OSUB  100:IF  FL  THEN  510 
BB  513  IF  F=l  THEN  500 
PC  515  GOTO  2100 
HK  600  OTS="ENGLISH":QT$="SPAN 

ISH":EO$="THE  WORD":EQ$ 

="LA  PALABRA" 
SQ  605  GOSUB  300:IF  X=0  THEN  2 

100 
CX  610  AN$=EN$(I) :AW5=SP$(I) :G 

OSUB  100: IF  FL  THEN  610 
XK  613  IF  F=l  THEN  600 
SJ  615  GOTO  2100 
DX  700  FL=0:IF  W=0  THEN  F=0:RE 

TURN 
GR  703  PRINT"{CLR} {11  DOWN} 

CWHT}"TAB(12)  "CON^MULA 

TIONSl!"  ^-"^ 

JM  705  PRTNT  TAB ( 9 ) " f DOWN } { 6 > Y 

OU  COMPLETED  THE  LIST," 
GR  710  FOR  Z=1TO192:POKE53280, 

Z:NEXT:F0RZ=1T08: PRINT" 

{DOWN}" :next:print" 

(HOME) {9  DOWN}" 
GJ  715  PRINT"(3  spaces} {YEL}Y0 
UR  SCORE : {WHT }  " ; I  NT  ( SC 
/(3*H) *100) ; "%" 
PP  720  PRINT"{DOWN} {3  SPACES} 
UG_    {YEL}YOU  GOT{WHT}"C" 
^^~  {YEL}CORRECT  OUT  OF 

{WHT}"W"{YEL} {LEFT} ." 
KQ  730  PRINT" {2  DOWN} 

{4  SPACES  5 <6}W0ULD  YOU 
{SPACE3LIKE  TO  TRY  THIS 
LIST" 
RK  740  PRINT" {DOWN} {4  SPACES )A 
GAIN  ({WHT}Vt6}  OR 
{WHT}N{6}) ?TWHT}  "; 
OS  750  GET  KES:IF  KES=""  THEN 

{SPACE}750 
JA  755  IF  KE5="Y"  THEN  PRINT"Y 

":F=1:RETURN 
KK  760  IF  KE$<>"N"  THEN  750 
HM  765  PRINT"N":F=0:RETURN 
RF  1000  PRINTTAB(7)"{2  DOWN} 

{YEL}PRESS  {{WHT}RETUR 
N{YELT]  TO  CONTINUE.": 
POKE  198,0 
FM  1005  GET  KE$:IF  KE$<>CHR$(1 

3)  THEN  1005 
DS  1010  RETURN 

XP  1100  POKE  53272, 21:P0KE  532 
80,14:POKE  53281, 6:PRI 
NT"{7}|CLR}":END 
AJ  1200  INPUT#15,ER,ER5,DT,DS: 

FL  =  0 
JC  1205  IF  ER=62  THEN  PRINT" 

{CLR} {RED} {9  D0WN}"TAB 
(13) "FILE  NOT  FOUND.": 
FL=1:RETURN 
FB  1210  IF  ER>19  THEN  PRINT" 

{RED}{2  DOWM}DISK  ERRO 
R  #"ER;ER$"{8  DOWN } " : F 
L=l 
BQ  1215  RETURN 

RP  1300  PRINT"{CLR} {WHT} {DOWN} 
"TAB  (12) "LOAD  A  WORD  F 
ILE" 
XJ  1315  PRINTTAB(12) "<3}{16  T} 


PF  1320  PRINT"{2  D0WN}<6} 

{4  SPACES }ENTER  NAME  0 
F  FILE  AT  THE  PROMPT." 

QM  1325  PRINT"{D0WN} {3  SPACES} 
TYPE  {{WHT}$<6}]  TO  VI 
EW  DIRECTORY." 

FC  1330  PRINT"{D0WN} {3  SPACES) 
PRESS  [{WHT)RETURN{6}j 
ALONE  TO  RETURN  TO" 

RC  1335  PRINT" {DOWN) {3  SPACES} 
{WHT}0PTI0N5  (6}MENU." 

RP  1340  PRINT:PRINT"{2  DOWN} 

{7JNAME  OF  FILE:{WHT}> 
"; :LN=15:G0SUB  200 

FX  1345  IF  WD$=""  THEN  2100 

QJ  1350  IF  WD$="$"  THEN  1410 

GF  1360  FLS=WD$:0PEN15,8,15:0P 
EN2,'8,2,"0:"  +  FL$+",S,R 

II 

PA  1365  GOSUB  1200:IF  FL=1  THE 

N  CL0SE2:CL0SE15:G0SUB 
1000:GOTO  2100 
JJ  1390  INPUT#2,X:F0R  S=l  TO  X 

:INPUT#2,EN$(S) ,SP$(S) 

:NEXT 
CQ    1400    CLOSE2:CLOSE15:GOTO    21 

00 
FP    1410    PRINT"  {CLRXejPRESS     { 

{WHT)SHIFT{6}1     TO    PAUS 

E.":SYS    49250:PRINT:GO 

SUB    I000:GOTO    1300 
BB    1600    PRINT"{CLR} {WHT} {DOWN) 

"TAB (11) "WORD    FILE    OPT 

I0NS":PRINTTAB(11) "i3i 

{17    TV 
MQ    1605    PRINTTAB(16)"{D0WN}<6} 

OPTIONS" IPRINTTAB (16) " 

<2}{7  T}" 
GX  1610  PRINTTAB(8) "{DOWN} 

{WHT)1.  CREATE  A  FILE" 

:PRINTTAB(8) "{DOWN} 2. 

{SPACE}APPEND  TO  A  FIL 

E" 
AB  1615  PRINTTAB(8)"{D0WN}3.  E 

DIT  A  FILE" 
CD  1620  PRINTTAB(B) "{D0WN}4.  R 

ETURN  TO  {WHT}MAIN  MEN 

U{2  DOWN}" 
BK  1630  PRINT"<6}{6  SPACES}ENT 

ER  YOUR  CHOICE{WHT}: 

{4  SPACES) {3  LEFT}"; 
GJ  1635  GET  KES:IF  KE$<"1"  OR 

{SPACE}KE$>"5"  THEN  16 

35 
SS  1640  PRINT  KES:ON  VAL(KE$) 

{SPACE}GOTO  1700,1700, 

1800,2100 
XA  1698  REM  CREATE/APPEUD  A  FI 

LE 
RE  1700  KE=VAL(KE$) :IF  KE=2  AN 

D  X=0  THEN  1300 
CJE  1705  PRINT"{CLR}{WHT}{DOWN} 

"TAB (12) "MAKE  A  WORD  F 

ILE":PRINTTAB(12) "{3> 

{16  T}" 
JX  1707  IF  KE=2  THEN  1720 
FB  1710  PRINT"{D0WN}{4  SPACES) 


6-26   COMPUTE 


-{6JNAME  OF  FILE{WHT}:" 
; :LN=15:G0SUB  200:IF  W 
D$=""  THEN  2100 

ES  1715  FL$=WD$+LEFT$ (NL$,16-L 
EN(WD$) ) :F=F+1:F$(F)=F 
L5:X=0:KE=2:GOTO  1705 

HX  1720  X=X+1:PRINT"{H0ME} 

{4  DOWN}"TAB(10) "{YEL} 
FILE: {WHT)";FL$ 

KX  1725  PRINTTAB (7) "{DOWN} 

{YELlNUMBER  OF  WORDS  S 

0  farTwht} :";X-l 

JQ  1730  PRINT"{6}{2  DOWN) 

{4  SPACES}FIRST,  ENTER 
THE  {WHT}ENGLISH<6>  W 

ORD  AT" 
RE  1735  PRINT"(3  SPACES}THE  PR 

OMPT,  THEN  ENTER  THE 

{WHT) SPANISH." 
RK  1740  PRINT"(D0WN1{8}  E^NGLIS 

H  WORD:  {WHT}"; :LN=17: 

GOSUB  200:EN$ {X)=WD$:I 

F  WD$=""  THEN  1763 
KQ  1745  PRINT"{2  D0WN}{8}  SPAN 

ISH  WORD:  {WHT}";:LN=1 

7:G0SUB    200 : SPS (X) =WD$ 

: IF  WD$=""  THEN  1763 
BF  1750  PRINT"{2  D0WN}fYEL)  I_S 
THIS  CORRECT  ([WHT}Y 

{YEL}  OR  (WHT}N{yEL}) ? 

{WHT}  "; 
QJ  1755  GET  KES;IF  KES="N"  THE 

N  PRINT"N":GOT0  1705 
PX  1760  IF  KES<>"Y"  THEN  1755 
SR  1763  IF  WD$=""  THEN  PRINT" 

{BLK}":X=X-1 
FD  1765  PRINT"Y":PRINT"CRIGHT) 

{YEL} {DOWN} ENTER  ANOTH 

er  word  ({WHT}Y{YEL}  0 

R  iWHT)Kl(YEL})  ?{WHT)  " 

} 
PH  1770  GET  KE$:IF  KE5="Y"  THE 

N  PRINT"Y":GOTO  1705 
SE  1775  IF  KE$<>"N"  THEN  1770 
PC  1780  PRINT"N":OPEN15,8,15: I 

F  KE=2  THEN  PRINTilS," 

S0:"+FL5:GOSUB  1200 
HJ  1785  IF  PL  THEN  CLOSE  I5:G0 

SUB  1000:GOTO  2100 
RM  1790  OPEN2,a,2,"0:"+FL5+",S 

,W": GOSUB  1200:IF  FL  T 

HEN  CLOSE  2:G0T0  1785 
XD  1791  PRINT#2,X:F0R  S=1  TO  X 

: PRINT #2, ENS (S) : PRINT* 

2,SP${S) :NEXT:GOSDB  12 

00 
HE  1792  IF  FL  THEN  CLOSE  2:G0T 

0  1785 
QB  1793  PRINT"{CLR){6}{9  DOWN) 

"TAB  (14) "FILE  SAVED. 

{2  DOWN)" 
XA  1794  CLOSE2:CLOSE15:GOSUB10 

00:GOTO  2100 
KP  1800  IF  X=0  THEN  GOSUB  300: 

GOTO  2100 
GP  1810  S=1:FL=1:PRINT"{CLR} 

(WHT) (DOWN) "TAB (15) "ED 

IT  A  PILE" 


QJ  1815  PRINTTAB(15)  "{3}-tll  T} 

II 

QF  1820  PRINT" {DOWN} {YEL}  FILE 
:  {WHT}";FLS;SPC(17-LE 
N(FL$))"{YEL}#  OF  WORD 
S: {WHT}";X 

RP  1825  PRINT"{DOWN}{3J'E40  Y}" 

PA  1830  PRINT"{HOME} (8  DOWN} 
i6i    ON  WORD: [WHT5 
{4  SPACES} {4  LEFT}";S 

AH    1835    PRINT"{2    D0WN}'t8> 

{2  SPACES }ENGLISH  WORD 
:  {WHT} ", -ENS (S)  , -LEFT? ( 
SC$,22-LEN (ENS(S)>)  !  PR 
INT 

MS  1840  PRINT"{8}{2  SPACES}SPA 
NISH  WORD:  {WHT}";SPS( 
S) ; LEFTS {SC$,22-LEN(SP 
S (S) ) ) tPRINT 

GD  1845  PRINT"{2  DOWN} {YEL} { 

{WHT}E{YEL}]  TO  {WHTjE 
DIT{YEL}  WORDS" 

MK  1850  PRINT"{DOWN} ({WHT}C 

{YEL}]  TO  {WHT)CONTIN0 
E{YEL}  LISTING" 

QH  1855  PRINT"{DOWN} {{WHT}Q 
{YEL}]  TO  {WHT}QUIT 
(YEL)  TO  {WHT}OPTIONS 
JYEL)  MENU{DOWN}" 

GQ  1860  GET  KE$:IF  KES=""  THEN 
1860 

RK  1865  ON  -(KE$="E")-2*(KE$=" 
C")-3* (KE$="Q")GOT0189 
0,1870,1880:GOTO1860 

PH  1870  S=S+1:IF  S  <  (X+1)  THE 
N1830 

JD  1875  S=1:GOTO1830 

XA  1880  IF  FL  THEN  2100 

QM  1885  KE=2:PRINT"{BLK}":G0TO 
1780 

DA  1890  PRINT" {HOME} {11  DOWN}" 
TAB (16) ; "{WHT}"; :P0KE1 
9, 65; INPUTTED  SPOKE  19,0 
: PRINT 

HS  1891  PRINT"{DOWN}"TAB  (16) ; " 
{WHT}"; : POKE  19, 65: INPU 
TTSS:P0KE19,9:PRINT 

RK  1892  IF  TE$<>EN5(S)  OR  TSS< 
>SPS  (S)  THEN  EN5(S)=TE 
5:SPS  (S)=TS$:FL  =  0 

BQ  1893  GOTO  1830 

rk  2100  print"{clr} {down}"tab ( 
9) "fwht}spanish  vocabu 
lary  quiz" 

bs  2105  printtab (9) "<3}{23  t}" 

pr  2110  printtab (16) "{d0wn){6} 
options":printtab (16) " 
Tblu]<7  t}{down}" 

er  2115  printtab  (8)  "{wht}1.  en 
glish  words": printtab ( 
8)"{down}2.  palabras  d 
e  espa{n}ol" 

rf  2120  printtab(8) "{d0wn}3.  l 
oad  a  word  file": print 

TAB{8) "{D0WN}4,  FILE  0 
PTIONS" 
BP  2125  PRINTTAB (8) "{D0WN}5.  Q 
OIT" 


FS  2130  PRINT"{2  D0WN}i6} 

{4  SPACES}ENTER  YOUR  C 

HO ICE {WHT}:  "; 
FC  2135  GET  KES:IF  KE$<"1"  OR 

{SPACE}KES>"5"  THEN  21 

35 
XX  2140  PRINT  KES:OS  VAL(KE$) 

{SPAGE}GOTO  500,600,13 

00, 1600,1100 
XX  2200  POKE53280,0:POKE53281, 

0 
QO  2202  IF  LV=1  THEN  POKE  56,5 

6:CLR:G0T0  2245 
XR  2205  PRINTCHRS(14) "{6J{CLR} 

"TAB  (9) "{2  DOWN} {WHT }£ 

PANISH  VOCABULARY  QUIZ 

11 

PP  2210  PRINTTAB(9) "<3}{23  T}" 
FX  2215  PRINTTAB(12) "{D0WN}{6} 

COPYRIGHT  1991" 
BG  2216  PRINTTAB (4) "{2  DOWN} 

{WHT}COMPUTE  PUBLICATI 

ONS  XNTL  LTD {2  DOWN}" 
EM  2220  PRINTTAB  (10)  "{YEL}Ai:.L 

{SPACE }RIGHTS  RESERVED 

II 

JM  2230  PRINTTAB (13) "{3  DOWN} 

{WHT}PLEASE  WAIT. .." 
GC  2240  IF  LV=0  THEN  LV=1:L0&D 

"SPAN, ML", 8,1 
XH  2245  DIM  EN$ (30) , SP$ (30 ) ,RN 

%(30) ,FS(120) 
DC    2255    POKE    56334, PEEK(56334) 
AND    254:P0KE    1,PEEK(1 

)  AND  251:SYS  49217 
CD  2265  POKE  1,PEEK{1)  OR  4 : PC 

KE    56334, PEEK(56334)    0 

R  1 
SF  2270  READ  A: IF  A=-l  THEN228 

0 
FH  2275  FOB  1=0  TO  7: READ  B:PO 

KE  14336+A*8+I,B:NEXT: 

GOTO2270 
CD  2280  POKE  53272 , (PEEK (53272 

)AND  240>OR  14 
JC  2285  SCS="{21  SPACES}":GOTO 

2100 
PE  2435  DATA  30,36,0,102,102,1 

02,102,62,0 
EA  2440  DATA  31,0,24,0,0,24,24 

,24,24 
KX  2445  DATA  47,0,24,0,24,48,9 

6,102,60 
BD  2450  DATA  98,6,24,0,56,24,2 

4,60,0 
KA  2455  DATA  106,54,72,124,102 

,102,102,102,0 
HF  2460  DATA  112,6,8,60,6,62,1 

02,62,0 
QK  2465  DATA  113,6,8,60,102,12 

6,96,60,0 
KP  2470  DATA  120,6,8,102,102,1 

02,102,62,0 
GA  2475  DATA  121,6,8,60,102,10 

2,102,60,0 
EJ  2480  DATA  158,219,255,153,1 

53,153,153,193,255 
SG  2485  DATA  159,255,231,255,2 


G-27 


PROGRAMS 


SP  2499 

SA  2495 

QE  2500 

SB  2505 

HJ  2510 

FG  2515 

BP  2520 

GJ  2525 

SPAN.ML 


55,23 

DATA 
31,20 
DATA 
99,23 

DATA 

53,15 

DATA 

49,19 

DATA 

53,12 

DATA 

53,15 

DATA 

53,15 

DATA 


1,231, 

175,25 
7,159, 
226,24 
1,231, 
234,20 
3,153, 
240,24 
3,153, 
241,24 
9,159, 
248,24 
3,153, 
249,24 
3,153, 
-1 


231,2 

5,231 
153,1 
9,231 
195,2 
1,183 
153,2 
9,247 
193,2 
9,247 
195,2 
9,247 
193,2 
9,247 
195,2 


31 

,255,2 

95 

,255,1 

55 

,131,1 

55 

,195,2 

55 

,195,1 

55 

,153,1 

55 

,195,1 

55 


C000 

A9 

05 

85 

FC 

A9 

05 

85 

FB 

80 

C00S 

A0 

00 

3C 

3C 

C0 

3C 

3D 

C0 

A2 

C010 

8C 

3E 

C0 

AE 

3E 

C0 

Bl 

FB 

BE 

C018 

C9 

3C 

D0 

01 

60 

DD 

00 

04 

36 

C020 

F0 

10 

CA 

DD 

00 

04 

F0 

07 

4E 

C02a 

E8 

£8 

DD 

00 

04 

D0 

06 

EE 

72 

C030 

3D 

C0 

EE 

3C 

C0 

EE 

3E 

C0 

21 

C033 

C8 

4C 

U 

C0 

00 

00 

00 

EA 

8A 

ca40 

EA 

A9 

00 

85 

FB 

85 

FD 

A9 

95 

C048 

D8 

83 

FC 

A9 

38 

85 

FE 

A2 

4A 

C050 

08 

A0 

00 

HI 

FB 

91 

FD 

88 

C3 

C058 

D0 

F9 

E6 

FC 

ee 

FE 

CA 

D0 

07 

C06a 

F0 

60 

A9 

01 

A2 

08 

A0 

00 

2E 

C068 

20 

BA 

FF 

A9 

02 

A2 

BC 

A0 

F7 

C070 

C0 

20 

BD 

FF 

20 

C0 

FF 

A2 

B8 

C078 

01 

20 

C6 

FF 

20 

CF 

FF 

20 

BB 

C080 

CF 

FF 

20 

CF 

FF 

85 

FB 

20 

19 

C08a 

CF 

FF 

05 

FB 

F0 

25 

A9 

0D 

CE 

C090 

20 

D2 

FF 

AD 

8D 

02 

29 

01 

79 

C098 

D0 

F9 

20 

CF 

FF 

AA 

20 

CF 

BC 

C0A0 

FF 

20 

CD 

BD 

A9 

20 

20 

02 

A0 

C0A8 

FF 

20 

CF 

FF 

F0 

D4 

20 

D2 

lA 

C0B0 

FF 

D0 

F6 

A9 

01 

20 

C3 

FF 

EF 

C0B8 

20 

CC 

FF 

60 

24 

30 

00 

00 

65 

Christopher      M.      Stoy     lives 
Ebensburg,  Pennsylvania. 


m 

a 


SPEEDSWAP 


By  Larry  Hagney 

ivlost  of  us  don't  use  SpeedScript  to 
write  the  Great  American  Novel,  Usually 
we  confine  our  efforts  to  smaller  endeav- 
ors such  as  letters,  reports,  term  pa- 
pers, program  documentation,  and 
such.  As  a  result  much  of  the  text  mem- 
ory available  to  SpeedScript  remains 
empty. 

Suppose  you're  using  SpeedScriptXo 
write  a  term  paper.  In  the  midst  of  your 
efforts,  you  remember  a  couple  of  par- 
agraphs in  a  document  that  you  wrote 
a  couple  of  months  ago  and  decide 
they  would  fit  perfectly  with  this  paper. 

e-28        COMPUTE 


To  incorporate  that  material  takes  more 
than  a  little  effort.  First,  you  save  your 
paper  to  disk,  load  in  the  old  document, 
copy  the  relevant  section  into  the  text 
buffer,  erase  the  old  document,  load  in 
the  term  paper,  and  then  finally  insert 
the  saved  text  in  the  appropriate  area 
of  your  paper. 

Well,  those  days  are  gone  forever. 
With  SpeedSwap  patched  into  your 
copy  of  SpeedScript  3.2  for  the  64,  two 
text  documents  can  coexist  in  memory. 
The  problem  mentioned  above  is  now 
simple  to  solve.  Just  move  to  your  alter- 
nate screen  and  load  the  old  document. 
Now  both  documents  are  independent- 
ly accessible.  Material  can  be  copied 
from  one  document  to  the  other,  or  one 
text  area  can  be  your  workscreen  while 
the  second  serves  as  a  storage  area  for 
various  reference  materials. 

Getting  Storted 

SpeedSwap  is  a  BASIC  program 
which  contains  a  short  (227  bytes)  ma- 
chine language  routine.  To  avoid  typ- 
ing errors,  enter  the  program  using  The 
Automatic  Proofreader;  see  "Typing 
Aids"  elsewhere  in  this  section.  When 
you've  finished  typing,  save  a  copy  of 
the  program  to  a  disk  containing 
SpeedScript.  Your  copy  of 
SpeedScript  must  be  saved  with  the  file- 
name SPEEDSCRIPT  because 
SpeedSwap  automatically  loads  and 
runs  that  filename. 

When  you  run  SpeedSwap,  it  lets 
you  allocate  memory  for  each  of  two 
text  areas,  identified  onscreen  as  area 

0  and  area  1.  Default  sizes  of  21,504 
and  21,760  bytes  are  displayed  in 
white  text.  Pressing  CRSR-down  de- 
creases the  size  of  text  area  0  in  256- 
byte  chunks,  while  increasing  text  area 

1  by  a  similar  amount.  CRSR-up  per- 
forms the  opposite  function.  Note  that 
the  total  number  of  bytes  of  both  text  ar- 
eas is  always  43,264.  This  is  256 
bytes  less  than  SpeedScript  normally 
makes  available  because  SpeedSwap 
allocates  a  256-byte  safety  zone  be- 
tween each  text  area. 

If  you're  not  sure  how  many  bytes  to 
allocate  for  a  file  that's  already  on 
disk,  corresponding  disk  block  sizes 
are  also  displayed.  Once  the  text 
areas  are  adjusted  for  your  needs, 
press  Return  to  boot  SpeedScript. 
SpeedSwap  sets  up  its  machine  lan- 


guage routine  which  loads 
SpeedScript,  patches  itself  in,  and 
then  runs  the  word  processor. 

Only  One  Command 

Witti  SpeedSwap  patched  into 
SpeedScript,  you  have  complete,  inde- 
pendent control  over  two  areas  of  text 
memory.  Only  one  command  is  need- 
ed to  switch  between  the  two.  Press 
the  Ctrl  key  and  Commodore  logo  key 
simultaneously  to  toggle  between  text 
area  0  and  text  area  1. 

When  SpeedScript's  screen  first  ap- 
pears, you'll  see  a  0  in  the  command 
line,  indicating  that  you  are  now  work- 
ing in  text  area  0.  Press  the  Ctrl  key 
and  the  =  key  simultaneously  to  see 
the  amount  of  memory  allotted  to  this 
area. 

Press  Ctrl-Commodore  to  access 
area  1,  indicated  by  a  1  in  the  com- 
mand line.  Area  1  provides  43,264 
bytes  minus  the  number  of  bytes  in 
area  0  for  text  storage. 

Each  text  area  is  completely  inde- 
pendent of  the  other.  Text  can  be  print- 
ed from,  loaded  into,  or  saved  from 
one  area,  without  disturbing  or  being  af- 
fected by  the  other.  You  can  erase  all 
text  in  one  area  while  text  in  the  other 
area  remains  untouched.  Each  area  al- 
so supports  its  own  text  and  back- 
ground colors. 

!n  short,  every  SpeedScript  com- 
mand behaves  as  though  the  active 
text  area  is  the  only  text  area.  One  no- 
table exception  is  SpeedScript's  text 
buffer;  text  from  one  area  can  be  cop- 
ied into  the  buffer  and  inserted  into  the 
other  text  area.  Similarly,  HUNT  and  RE- 
PLACE phrases  are  also  portable  to 
each  area.  One  handy  SpeedSwap  fea- 
ture is  cursor  positioning.  When  you  re- 
turn to  a  text  area,  you'll  find  the  cur- 
sor in  the  same  position  as  you  left  it. 
This  is  convenient  when  using  one 
text  area  for  viewing  reference  materi- 
als and  the  other  for  writing. 

Keep  in  Mind 

The  changes  SpeedSwap  makes  to 
SpeedScript  are  not  permanent,  so 
load  and  run  SpeedSwap  whenever 
you  want  to  use  it.  There  are  a  few  cau- 
tions that  you  should  bear  in  mind, 
however.  Do  not  attempt  to  load  a  docu- 
ment into  a  text  area  for  which  you  ha- 
ven't allocated  enough  space.  For  in- 


stance,  i*  area  0  has  21,504  bytes  al- 
located and  you  attempt  to  load  a  100- 
block  document,  text  area  0  will  be 
tilled,  but  the  rest  of  the  document  will 
spill  over  into  area  1.  The  text  in  area 
1,  however,  cannot  be  accessed,  You 
must  erase  all  text  in  area  1  before  you 
can  use  that  screen. 

This  could  be  avoided  by  allocating 
25.600  bytes  to  area  0  prior  to  loading 
the  100-block  document.  Also,  if  you  at- 
tempt to  load  a  file  too  large  for  area  1, 
SpeedSwap's  machine  language  will 
be  overwritten  by  the  text,  and 
SpeedScript  w\l  crash. 

Also,  if  you  plan  on  using 
SpeedSearch  (May  1987)  to  search 
any  SpeedSwap-generated  files,  be 
aware  that  documents  saved  from  ar- 
ea 0  will  have  a  normal  load  address  of 
9472.  Documents  saved  from  area  1, 
however,  will  have  a  load  address  of  X 
*  256  where  X  =  (number  of  area  1 
bytes  /  256)  +  37.  However,  the  load  ad- 
dress is  irrelevant  to  SpeedScript.  any 
SpeedScr/pf  enhancement  program,  or 
any  other  program  designed  to  proc- 
ess SpeedScript  text  files. 

If  you  plan  to  exit  SpeedScript  and 
then  return  from  BASIC,  be  sure  that 
text  area  0  is  active  when  you  quit.  Oth- 
erwise, text  could  be  damaged. 

SPEEDSWAP 

db  10  rem  copyright  1991  compu 
te  publications  intl  ltd 
-  all  rights  reserved 

gp  20  poke808,234:print"{clr} 
{n){h1{eV';:dimx,q$,a,b, 

C,S,E,ES:X=121:E?="DATA 
{SHIFT-SPACE} ERROR  IN  LI 
NES" 

AQ  30  S=828:E=934:GOSOB180: IFC 
<>11409THE«PRINTE$190"-" 
250:STOP 

XC  40  SYSS:PRINT"S^PEEDSCRIPT  3 
.2  SPEEDSWAP": PRINT "<4} 
{D0WN}COPYRIGHT  1991" 

MA  50  PRINT "COMPUTE  PUBLICATIO 
NS  _I_NTL  LTD":  PRINT  "ALL  R 
IGHTS  RESERVED fOOWNT" 

BH  60  S=53000:E=53226:GOSOB180 
: IFC<>25771THENPRINTE$26 
0"-"39B:SYS906:STOP 

GF  7  0  PRINT "PRESS  CRSR  UP/DOWN 
TO  SELECT  SIZE 
{7  SPACES} tIN  BYTES)  OF 
{SPACE} EACH  TEXT  AREA." 

CM  80  PRINT"PRESS  RETURN  TO  LO 
AD  SPEEDSCRIPT." 

XG  90  PRINT"PRESS  CTRL/C=  FROM 


EQ 

100 

MS 

110 

DF 

120 

PK 

130 

SP 

140 

BP 

150 

GB 

160 

QC  170 


GO 

180 

AR 

190 

DM 

200 

MG 

210 

PG 

220 

BM 

230 

EG  24C 


SQ 

250 

BX 

260 

MA 

270 

EB 

280 

HF 

290 

JE 

300 

CF 

310 

DB 

320 

WITHIN  S^PEEDSCRIPT 
{3  SPACES )T0  SWAP  TEXT  A 
RE AS. {DOWN}" 
F0RA=.T01: PRINT "TEXT  AR 
EA"ASPC(8) "DISK  BLOCKS" 
:NEXT 

PRINT"TOTAL  BYTES  43264 
{3  SPACES }TOTAL  BLOCKS 
{ SPACE }169TWHT} {UP}" 
PRINT"(2  UP}"SPC(11- (X< 
77)  )X*2  5  6-9  4  72SPC(13-.  (X 
<137)- (X<47)) "  "X-37 
PRINTSPCdl-  (X>166)  )  529 
92"(X+1) *2  5  6SPC (13-(X>1 
06)-(X>196)) '■  "206-X 
GETQ$:ON-(Q$="{DOWN}"OR 
QS="{UP}")GOTO170:IFQ$< 
>GHR$(13)THEN140 
POKE  5304 1,X:X=X+1; POKE  5 
320 9, X : PC KE 5321 8, X: POKE 
53224, X:POKE53226,X 
SYS906:  PRINT"  {CLRH8JL0 
ADING  SPEEDSCRIPT. . .":P 
OKE808,237:SYSS:END 
X=X+(Q9="{D0WN}")-(QS=" 
{UP}") :X=X-162*{(X=40)- 
(X=2a3) ) :POKE646,-(X=12 
1) :GOTO120 

C=.:FORA=S  TOE:READB:P0 
KEA,B:C=C+B: NEXT: RET URN 
DATA120,169,0,141,14,22 
0,169,27,141,17,208,169 
,91,141,20,3,169 
DATA 3, 14 1,2 1,3, 16 9, 1,14 
1,26,208,141,13,208,83, 
96,169,58,172 
DATA135,3,205,18,208,20 
8,8,169,1,172,136,3,140 
,32,208,140,33 
DAT A208, 14 1,18, 208, 201, 
1,240,8,169,1,141,25,20 
8,76,188,254,169 
DATA1,141,25,208,76,49, 
234,0,12,0,120,169,0,14 
1,26,208,141 
DATA32, 208, 141, 33, 208,1 
69,49,141,20,3,169,234, 
141,21,3,169,1 
DATA141,14,220,88,96 
DATA16  9,5,162,8,168,32, 
186,255,169,11,162,205, 
160,207,32,189,255 
DATA 16 9, 0,1 3 3, 10, 14 1,8, 
32,  32,213,255,169,76,16 
2,207,141,134,10 
DATA142,135,10,142,11,3 
2,169,121,141,177,9,169 
,37,141,9,32,173 
DATA29, 13, 141, 23  5,207,1 
73,44,13,141,236,207,32 
,55,9,76,13,3 
DATA162,49, 14  2, 38, 216,1 
73,11,32,201,207,240,1, 
202,142,38,4,173 
DATA141,2,201,6,20  8,103 
,165,2,160,0,145,57,132 
,162,165,162,41 
DAT A16, 2 4 0,2 50, 162, 3, 18 


9,12,3 

,16,24 

BE  330  DATA19 
02,16, 
32,190 

MC  340  DATA21 
2,136, 
57,188 

EC  350  DATA23 
202,16 
2,235, 

RB  360  DATA14 
13,172 
3,141, 

RS  370  DATA17 
,9,76, 
69,68, 

MM  380  DATA82 
,207,0 
,0 

DK  390  DATA0, 


2,157,220 

7,162,3,1 

,32,157,2 

247,160,1 

,216,207, 

6,207,138 

16,240,16 

,233,207, 

3,207,152 

,242,173, 

207,140,2 

1,235,207 

,236,207, 

236,207,1 

7,57,133, 

228,255,8 

83,67 

,73,80,84 

,0,0,0,40 


,207,202 

89 

27,207,2 

6,135,8, 

153 

,153,8,3 

2,1,181, 

157 

,1.49,57, 

29,13,17 

9,13 

,173,44, 

140,44,1 

60,0 

2,32,246 

3,80,69, 

,0,122,0 
,0,122,0 


1,0,122,0,122 


Larry  Hagney  lives  in  Las  Cruces.  New 
Mexico.  O 


CREDIT  CONTROL 

By  George  R.  Reid 

When  the  temptation  to  use  a  conven- 
ient credit  card  becomes  too  great  to 
ignore,  a  program  such  as  Credit  Con- 
trol can  be  a  welcome  financial  guide 
and  advisor.  Successful  credit  card 
management  depends  on  three  requi- 
sites: a  careful  budget,  accurate  ac- 
counts, and  financial  discipline. 

Credit  Control  is  a  simple  program  for 
the  64  that  can  help  you  plan  your  ex- 
penditures and  alert  you  against  over- 
spending. It  also  provides  some  gener- 
al fiscal  advice. 

Getting  Started 

Credit  Control  is  written  entirely  in  BA- 
SIC. To  help  avoid  typing  errors,  use 
Ttie  Automatic  Proofreader:  see  "Typ- 
ing Aids"  elsewhere  in  this  section.  Be 
sure  to  save  a  copy  of  the  program 
when  you've  finished  typing  it  in. 

Taking  Charge 

Have  your  monthly  credit  card  state- 
ment and  any  late  purchase  receipts 
on  hand  when  you  run  Credit  Control. 
When  you  first  use  the  program  or  if 
your  financial  situation  later  changes, 
move  the  highlight  cursor  to  the  Statis- 
tics menu  option  and  press  Return.  A 
series  of  prompts  will  guide  you.  Sim- 
ply enter  your  card's  finance  charge 

G-29 


PROGRAMS 


rate,  your  monthly  payment  date,  your 
self-imposed  monthly  credit  purchase 
limits,  and  your  credit  limit.  After  you 
make  these  entries,  you'll  return  to  the 
main  menu. 

To  record  your  credit  transactions,  se- 
lect the  Data  Entry  option.  You'll  be 
asked  to  enter  the  month  and  day  of 
each  transaction  and  the  seller's 
name  and  description  of  items  pur- 
chased. (Keep  the  name  and  descrip- 
tion to  13  characters  or  less.)  For  your 
first  entry,  enter  the  date  and  balance 
due  from  your  last  monthly  credit  state- 
ment. Then  enter  any  credit  purchases 
or  payments  made  since  the  statement 
date. 

At  the  end  of  each  transaction,  you'll 
be  given  several  options.  You  may  en- 
ter another  transaction,  make  changes 
to  previous  entries,  return  to  the  main 
menu,  or  display  your  current  entries. 
After  you've  entered  all  of  your  credit 
card  transactions,  return  to  the  menu 
and  select  the  Storage  option  to  save 
your  data.  You  may  want  to  save  the  da- 
ta with  a  name  that  is  similar  to  your 
credit  card's.  Use  any  valid  filename 
up  to  12  characters  in  length.  Credit 
Control  appends  a  prefix  of  CDF  to 
each  filename  for  easy  identification, 
but  omit  these  letters  when  loading  the 
data  back  into  your  program. 

Taking  Control 

After  you  charge  an  item  or  make  a  pay- 
ment on  your  account,  load  your  file 
from  the  Storage  option,  select  Data  En- 
try, and  then  enter  the  transaction.  If 
you  make  a  payment,  place  a  minus 
sign  immediately  before  any  payment 
amounts  or  returns.  These  will  appear 
as  subtractions  from  the  account  bal- 
ance. Save  the  file  when  data  entry  is 
complete.  Credit  ConJro/ takes  care  of 
everything  else. 

On  the  menu  screen  you'll  be  in- 
formed of  your  credit  card  balance. 
You'll  also  receive  some  friendly  advice 
on  credit  management,  if  necessary.  A 
listing  of  transactions  and  balances 
can  be  made  at  any  time.  Error  correc- 
tions can  be  made  easily  for  the  last 
two  entries.  Earlier  errors  can  be  recti- 
fied by  making  a  new  entry  that  adds 
or  subtracts  the  proper  amount  to  cor- 
rect the  balance. 

Each  credit  card's  account  can  be 
maintained  in  a  separate  file.  However, 

G-3a        COMPUTE 


if  you  begin  the  system  with  a  realistic 
self-imposed  monthly  spending  limit. 
Credit  Control  will  advise  you  when  to 
get  rid  of  those  extra  cards.  Also,  be 
aware  that  you  don't  have  to  accept 
the  card  company's  suggested  month- 
ly payment  amount.  Credit  Control  will 
advise  you  on  payment  size  and  other 
factors,  too. 

Keep  all  your  credit  slips  handy  in 
an  envelope  or  simple  file.  Then  get  in- 
to the  habit  of  regularly  entering  them. 
Follow  the  program's  financial  advice, 
enjoy  Credit  Control,  and  don't  abuse 
your  credit  with  overuse. 

CREDIT  CONTROL 


XE  e 


EX 

10 

KG 

20 

AK 

30 

ftA 

40 

AJ 

50 

MR  63 


CX  70 


REM  COPYRIGHT  1991  -  COMP 
UTE  PUBLICATIONS  ItJTL  LTD 

-  ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 

REM  CREDIT  CONTROL  -BV  G 

.     RE  ID.    CC 

MX  =  61:X=0:L  =  1:OS'="10.5": 

P$="10TH    OF    HONTH":H=10: 

CL=1000 

DIM    D$(MX,4) 

PRINT"{CLR5" 

F0RXX=1T05:PRINT'MD0WN}" 

:NEXT:GOSUB980 

PRINT" {HOME} {2  DOWN}";TA 

B(13) "(GRN}CREDIT 

{SHIFT-SPftCElC0NTR0L{7>" 

PRINTTRB (13) "*********** 


CP  80  PRINT  CHR5{14) 

BP  90  SY$="(RVS) (CYNl":SZ$=" 

{0FF){7}" 
GE  100  N$(1)="DATA  ENTRY":N$(2 

) ="DISPLAY" 
AS  110  N$(3)-"ST0RAGE":N$(4) =" 

STATISTICS" 

N9(5)=="EXIT" 

FOR  C=1T05:PRINTTAB(13) 

N${C) :NEXT 
PRINT"(6  UP}":C=1:PRINT 
TAB(13)SYSN$(1)SZS 
GETG9: IFGS=""THEN150 
IFG$=CHR9tl3)THEN20O 
IFG$="{DOWN}"THEN  PRINT 

"{UP}";TAB(13)N$(C) :C=C 
+  l:PRItJTTAB(13)SYSN$(C) 

szs 

IFC=6THENPRINT"{UP}"; :G 

OTO140 

GOTO150 

ON  C  GOTO330,570,730,21 

0,1240 

PRINT"fCLR) [2  D0WN5STAT 

ISTICAL  DATA  ENTRY" :PRI 

NT 

print"enter  your  new:-" 
print"Tdown)annual  FINA 
nce  charge  rate" 
pri«t"current  is — ";0$: 


SM 

120 

er 

130 

GK 

140 

XD 

150 

KR 

160 

CE 

170 

HK 

180 

DX 

190 

AE 

200 

AQ  210 


QE  220 
XS  230 

GA  240 


FS 

250 

AX 

260 

CP 

270 

AQ 

280 

FA 

290 

SJ 

300 

FF 

310 

DH 

320 

GQ 

330 

DE 

340 

HQ  350 


BD  360 


QE  370 


XQ  380 


HX  390 

RS  400 
BO  410 
DR  420 

RG  430 


CB  440 

SE  450 

FG  460 

MG  470 

QQ  480 

DD  490 

BA  500 


JC  510 
JS  520 

EB  530 
QE  540 


XF  550 


KA  560 


INPUT  0$:IFVAL(0S)<1THE 
N210 

PRINT"{DOWN}MONTHLY  PAY 
MENT  DATE" 

PRINT"CURRENT  IS  — ";P$: 
INPUT  P$ 

PRINT" {D0WN}BUDGETE0  MA 
XIMUM  MONTHLY  CREDIT" 
PRINT"PURCHASES  AMOUNT 
{SPACE )$" 

PRINT"CORREKT  IS — ";M:I 
NPUT  H:IFM<1THEN270 
PRINT"{D0WN}ASSIGNED  CR 
EDIT  LIMIT" 

PRINT"CORRENT  IS — ";CLt 
INPUT  CL 
GOTO40 

X=iX  +  l;Y  =  0:IS  =  "--":IFX>M 
X-lTHENPRINT" {CLR} 
{D0WN}FULL  FILE":X=L:G0 
TO430 

PRINT"{CLR} {2  D0WN)ENTE 
R  MONTH  &  DAY  OF  PURCHR 
SE":GOSUB420 
PRINT"{CLRl (2  DOWNlENTE 
R  SELLER'S  NAHE/DESCRIP 
TION":GOSUB420 
PRINT"tCLR} {2  D0WN)ENTE 
R  AMOUNT  (CHARGED  OR  PA 
ID)  $" 

PRINT" (PAYMENT  MUST  BE 
{SPACE)HINUS  E.G. 
{2  SPACES}-56) {DOWN)":L 
=X:GOSUB420 

B2=B2+VAL(D$(X,3)) :B2=I 
NT (B2*100+.5)/100:DS (X, 
4) =STR$ (82) 

IFVAL(D$ (X,3) ) <0THENB4= 
B3:B3=B2 
IFX=LTHEN430 
X=X+1:GOTO520 
INPUTI$:Y=Y+1:DS(X,Y)=I 
S:l$="--":RETURN 
PRINT"{D0WN1  E=ENTER:  C 
=CHANGES:  M=MENU:  D=DIS 
PLAY" 

GET  NS:IFNS=""THEN440 
IF  N$-"E"THEN330 
IF  N$-="C"THEN500 
IF  N$="M"THEN40 
IF  N$="D"THEN570 
GOTO440 

PRINT"{CLR5 {DOWNlHIT  RE 
TURN  AFTER  CHANGES  OR  T 
0  BY-PASS {2  SPACES) AN  E 
NTRY" 

X=X-1:IFX<1THENX=1 
PRINT" {DOWN)ENTER  NEW  D 
ATA  AT  CURSOR:-" 
B2=VAL(D$(X-1,4)) : PRINT 
PRINT"#";X;TAB(5) "DATE: 
{3  SPACESl";DS(X,l) ; : IN 
PUT  D5(X,1) 

PRINTTAB (5) "SELLER:  " ; L 
EFTS(0S(X,2) ,13) ; : INPUT 

DS(X,2) 
PRINTTAB (5) "AMOUNT:  ";D 
$ (X,3) ; :INPUT  D$(X,3) :P 


R1NT:GOTO380 

HJ  570  G=1:C2=18:C1=C2 

CH  580  PRINT"{CLR} (D0WN)";C$:P 
RINT"  NO  DATE {2  SPACES} 
SELLER/DETAIL {2  SPACES} 
AMOUNT  BALANCE" 

AR  590  PRINT"  —  

{2  SPACES) 

{2  SPACES) 


FOR  C=GTO  L 
PRINTC;TAB{4)LEFT$(D$ (C 

,1)  ,6) ;tab(10)leftS{D$C 

C,2) ,13); 

PRINTTAB(23) ; :F$=D$(C,3 

) 

GOSUB640:F$=DS(C,4) :GOS 

UB640:PRINT:GOTO680 

FS="{5  S  PACES  }*'+F$:  FT  $  = 

RIGHTS {FS, 3)  : I  FLEETS (FT 

S,1)="."THEN670 

IFMID$ (FTS,2,1) ="."THEN 

F$=FS+"0":GOTO670 

F$=F5+".00" 

PRINTRIGHT$(FS,8) ; :RETU 

RN 

IF    C<ClTHEt]720 

PRINT " ( DOWN } RETURN" 

GET  PA$:IFPAS=""THEN700 

C1=C1+C2 

NEXT:PRINT:GOTO430 

PRINT"{CLR) {2  DOWN}":IN 

PUT"ENTER  FILE-NAHE";C$ 

PRINT"  L=LOAD: 

{2  SPACES}S=SAVE" 

GET  X$: IFXS=""THEN750 

IFXS="L"THEN900 

IFXS<>"S"THEN750 

PRINT"WISH  TO  {YELjSAVE 

{7}  ";C$;"  ?  Y/N" 

GETX$:IFX$=""THEN7  90 

IFX$<>"Y"THEN40 

OPEN  1,8,2,"@0:CDF"+C$+ 

",S,W" 

QS=CHRS(13) 

PRINT#1,P$Q$0$QSH,QSL,Q 

$CL 

C=lrY=l 

IF  OLTHEN890 

A$=D$(C,Y) :PRINT#1,A$:Y 

=  Y+1 

IF  Y>4THEN  Y=1:C=C+1 

GOTO850 

CLOSE  1: PRINT" (CLR) 

{DOWN)SAVED  "C$:GOTO50 

OPEN  1,8,2,"0:CDF"+CS+" 

,S,R" 

INPUT#  1,P$,0S,H,L,CL 

C=1:Y=1 

IP  OLTHEN970 

INPUTtl,A5:D$(C,Y)=A?:y 

=Y+1 

IF  Y>4THEN  Y=1:C=C+1 

GOTO930 

CLOSE  1:X=L:B2=VAL(DS(C 

-1,4) )  : GOTO  57  0 

U=VAL{D$(X,4) ) 

UM=INT ( (U-M) *100+.5)/10 


SK 

600 

DM 

610 

FE 

620 

BC 

630 

HF 

640 

XP 

650 

CH 

660 

MM 

670 

MQ 

630 

KG 

690 

ME 

700 

DB 

710 

MP 

720 

JS 

730 

■QD 

740 

HR 

750 

MH 

760 

AF 

770 

AQ 

780 

DG 

790 

MP 

800 

CP 

810 

GS 

820 

CM 

830 

JF 

840 

CX 

850 

HR 

860 

GG 

870 

RX 

830 

DH 

890 

HS 

900 

PK 

910 

FJ 

920 

DO 

930 

BS 

940 

PK 

950 

BC 

960 

JG 

970 

HE 

980 

MG 

990 

0 

XG  1000  PRINT:  PRINT"  {YEL}S_ELEC 
T{7}  WITH  CURSOR  AND  R 
ETURN" 

KQ  1010  PRINT"{2  DOWN ) " ;TAB ( 10 

V  M_____^^^^^, ^ 11 

GC  1020  PRINT" {GRN} YOUR  CURREN 

T  BALANCE  IS  5"; 
BR  1030  IFU>MTHENPRINT"{3}"U" 

<7>*':GOTO1050 
BC  1040  PRINTU: IFU=<0THENPRINT 

"  CONGRATULATIONS 1":G0 

TO1230 
PH  1050  IF(CL-U) <CL*.2  THEN  PR 

INT"  YOUR  CREDIT  LIMIT 
IS  $";CL 
AD  1060  IFVAL(D$(X,3) ) <0THEN10 

90 
HD  1070  PRINT"  TO  AVOID  FINANC 

E  CHARGE  AT  ";0$;"%  AP 

R," 
JA  1080  PRINT"  PLEASE  PAY  BY  " 

•  PS ■ " {7 J " 
FA  1090  IFU=<M  THEN1230 
DD  1100  PRINT"'{1}BALANCE  EXCEE 

DS  S";STR$(M) ; "-BUDGET 
BY";UM 
RF  1110  R=VAL(OS)/12/100:IF{a/ 

M*R)  >.99999THEN1210 
MF  1120  N=L0G(1/(1-(U/M*R)) )/L 

0G(1+R) 
QE  1130  PRINT"  ^F  NO  FURTHER  P 

URCHASES,  IT  TAKES" 
HE  1140  PRINTINT (N*10+.5)/10; " 

MONTHS  TO  PAY  OFF. {7}" 
KD  1150  IF  N<1.15THEN123a 
JK  1160  IF  VAL{D$(X,3))<  (.25*M 

)THEN  IF  U<B4THENPRINT 

"  GOOD  TREND. . .BUT" 
FQ  1170  IF  N>2  THEN1220 
KQ  1180  PRINT"<3>I_NCREASE  YOUR 
BUDGET  TO  S";INT(M*N) 

r 

PQ  1190  IF  N<1.5THEN1230 

BA  1200  PRINT"  OR":GOTO1220 

KD  1210  PRINT"{3J  CANNOT  BE  RE 

PAID. {2  SPACES3BUDGET 

{SPACE}OF  $";M;"IS 

(4  SPACES3VERY  LOW. 

{2-  SPACES) REPEAT  I" 
AK  1220  PRINT"{YEL}HIDE  " 

(SHIFT-SPACE)¥OUR 

{SHIFT-SPACE}CARD  AWAY 

!<7>" 
CQ  1230  RETURN 
AG  1240  PRINT" {2  DOWNjDID  YOU 

(SPACE) SAVE  YOUR  DATA? 

U  SPACES}Y/N" 
JG  1253  GETS?: IF  S$=""THEN1250 
MA  1260  IF  S$="Y"THEN  PRINT" 

{CLR)":END 
HP  1270  GOTO40 


PLOTTER 


George  R.  Reid  is  a  professor  of  busi- 
ness. fHe  lives  in  Savannah,  Georgia, 
and  has  excellent  credit.  D 


By  Daniel  Lightner 

Have  you  ever  designed  a  screen  on 
the  64  tfiat  you  would  like  to  use  in  a 
program  that  you're  writing?  Poking 
those  character  values  into  the  proper 
screen  memory  locations  is  a  fast  and 
efficient  way  to  do  it,  but  determining 
those  poke  values  is  another  story.  Plot- 
ter is  just  the  utility  to  help  you  deter- 
mine those  values. 

Typing  It  In 

Plotter  is  written  entirely  in  machine  lan- 
guage. To  enter  it,  use  MLX,  our  ma- 
chine language  entry  program;  see 
"Typing  Aids"  elsewhere  in  this  sec- 
tion. When  MLX  prompts,  respond 
with  the  following  values. 

Starting  address:  COOO 
Ending  address:  C2Q7 

Be  sure  to  save  a  copy  of  the  program 
before  you  exit  MLX. 

Putting  It  to  Work 

To  use  the  program,  enter  LOAD"PLOT- 
TER".8,1  and  then  press  Return. 
When  it  has  finished  loading,  don't  run 
it.  Instead,  type  NEW,  press  Return, 
and  then  enter  SYS49152.  If  all  has 
gone  well,  the  program  will  announce 
its  presence. 

To  see  how  Plotter  works,  place  the 
cursor  on  any  character,  anywhere  on 
the  screen,  Press  f1.  Two  numbers 
should  appear  in  the  upper  left  corner 
of  the  screen.  The  first  number  is  the 
screen  location  of  the  cursor  and  the 
number  following  the  comma  is  the 
poke  value  of  the  character  stored  at 
that  location. 

If  you  load  Plotter  Uom  the  64's  open- 
ing  screen  and  go  through  the  preced- 
ing steps,  you  should  see  that  Plotter 
has  been  enabled  and  the  word 
READY  should  be  near  the  bottom  of 
the  screen.  Place  your  cursor  over  the 
letter  R  in  the  word  READY  and  press 
f1.  At  the  top  of  the  screen,  you  may 
see  1904,18.  If  your  cursor  isn't  on 
line  24,  you  may  get  a  different  first  num- 
ber, but  you  should  get  an  18,  which  is 
the  value  to  poke  to  the  screen  to  print 
an  R. 

Now  press  the  space  bar  to  delete 
the  letter  R.  fvlove  the  cursor  to  any 

G-31 


PROGRAMS 


blank  line  on  the  screen,  enter  POKE 
1904,18,  and  press  Return.  (Use  the 
numbers  at  the  top  of  your  screen  if 
they  are  different.)  The  R  should  now 
be  back  in  the  word  READY.  Press  f7 
to  clear  those  values;  then  move  the  cur- 
sor to  another  location  and  press  f1 
again. 

How  Does  It  Do  Thot? 

Plotter  wedges  itself  into  the  64's  hard- 
ware interrupt  routine  and  then  turns 
control  of  the  64  back  to  the  BASIC  edi- 
tor. The  program  waits  in  the  back- 
ground, quietly  scanning  the  keyboard 
for  f1  to  be  pressed.  When  it  detects 
f1.  it  copies  the  characters  and  colors 
from  the  first  eight  bytes  of  screen  mem- 
ory. P/offer  writes  the  screen  location  of 
the  cursor  and  the  value  of  the  charac- 
ter under  the  cursor  to  the  top  left  cor- 
ner of  the  screen.  It  then  scans  f7  for 
a  keypress.  When  the  program  detects 
that  the  f7  key  has  been  pressed,  Plot- 
ter replaces  the  characters  at  the  top 
of  the  screen  that  may  have  been  over- 
written. 

You  can  disable  Plotter  by  pressing 
Run/Stop  and  the  Restore  key  simulta- 
neously. !t  would  be  good  practice  to 
disable  Plotter  before  using  the  disk 
drive.  You  can  activate  it  again  with 
SYS49152. 

PLOTTER 


C00fl 

A0 

00 

B9 

B0 

01 

20 

D2 

FF 

48 

ca08 

C8 

00 

54 

D0 

F5 

AD 

14 

03 

47 

C010 

8D 

11 

03 

AD 

15 

03 

8D 

12 

B9 

C018 

03 

78 

A  9 

2B 

8D 

14 

03 

A9 

8D 

C020 

C0 

8D 

15 

03 

58 

A  9 

00 

80 

2F 

C028 

20 

CB 

60 

AE 

20 

CB 

E0 

00 

95 

C030 

D0 

16 

A6 

CB 

E0 

04 

F0 

03 

2D 

C038 

6C 

11 

03 

A2 

01 

8E 

20 

CB 

0D 

C040 

A5 

CE 

8D 

36 

CB 

6C 

11 

03 

92 

C048 

A5 

CF 

C9 

01 

F0 

13 

AE 

20 

2B 

C050 

CB 

E0 

01 

F0 

12 

E0 

02 

F0 

28 

C058 

14 

E0 

04 

F0 

07 

E0 

03 

F0 

5E 

C060 

39 

6C 

11 

03 

4C 

34 

CI 

4C 

D6 

C068 

D4 

C0 

4C 

88 

CI 

A9 

03 

8D 

DE 

C070 

20 

CB 

A5 

Dl 

85 

FB 

A5 

D2 

01 

C078 

85 

FC 

18 

A  5 

D3 

65 

FB 

85 

0B 

C080 

FB 

fl9 

00 

65 

FC 

85 

FC 

A5 

5E 

C083 

FC 

A6 

FB 

8D 

34 

CB 

8E 

33 

AB 

C090 

CB 

A2 

09 

8E 

35 

CB 

A0 

B0 

75 

C098 

AD 

33 

CB 

DD 

A5 

CI 

AD 

34 

08 

C0A0 

CB 

FD 

A6 

CI 

90 

0F 

8D 

34 

38 

C0A8 

CB 

AD 

33 

CB 

FD 

AS 

CI 

80 

36 

C0B0 

33 

CB 

C8 

D0 

E3 

98 

CA 

F0 

EC 

caB8 

10 

C9 

B0 

F0 

03 

8D 

35 

CB 

5E 

C0C0 

2C 

35 

CB 

30 

04 

A9 

00 

F0 

D9 

C0C8 

05 

29 

7F 

20 

7B 

CI 

CA 

10 

91 

C0D0 

C5 

6C 

11 

03 

A9 

02 

8D 

20 

33 

cBoa 

CB 

A0 

00 

A9 

00 

85 

FB 

A9 

BA 

G-32 

COMPUTE 

• 

C0E0 

04 

85 

FC 

A9 

21 

85 

FD 

A9 

C4 

C0E8 

CB 

85 

FE 

Bl 

FB 

91 

FD 

C8 

97 

C0F0 

C0 

08 

00 

F7 

A0 

00 

A9 

00 

06 

C0F8 

85 

FB 

A9 

08 

85 

FO 

A9 

29 

9B 

C100 

85 

FD 

A9 

CB 

85 

FE 

Bl 

FB 

3F 

C108 

91 

FD 

C8 

C0 

08 

00 

F7 

A9 

16 

C110 

03 

BD 

00 

08 

3D 

01 

D8 

80 

B5 

C118 

02 

D8 

8D 

03 

08 

80 

04 

08 

92 

C120 

8D 

05 

08 

80 

06 

D8 

8D 

07 

55 

C128 

D8 

A2 

04 

86 

FE 

A2 

00 

86 

B2 

C130 

FD 

6C 

11 

03 

A5 

CB 

09 

03 

13 

C138 

F0 

03 

6C 

11 

03 

A9 

00 

80 

OF 

C140 

20 

CB 

A0 

00 

A9 

00 

85 

FB 

2F 

C148 

A9 

04 

85 

FC 

A9 

21 

85 

FD 

FC 

C150 

A9 

CB 

85 

FE 

Bl 

FO 

91 

FB 

E0 

C158 

C8 

C0 

03 

00 

F7 

A0 

00 

A9 

en 

C160 

00 

85 

FB 

A9 

08 

85 

FC 

A9 

OF 

C168 

29 

85 

FD 

A9 

CB 

85 

FE 

Bl 

60 

C170 

FD 

91 

FB 

C8 

00 

03 

00 

F7 

23 

C178 

6C 

11 

03 

8C 

31 

CB 

A0 

00 

99 

C180 

91 

FD 

E6 

FD 

AC 

31 

CB 

60 

2B 

ciaa 

A9 

20 

8D 

06 

04 

80 

07 

04 

63 

C190 

fl9 

2C 

20 

7B 

CI 

AD 

36 

CB 

AC 

C198 

85 

FB 

A9 

00 

85 

FC 

A9 

04 

8A 

C1A0 

80 

20 

CB 

4C 

87 

C0 

01 

00 

72 

C1A8 

0A 

00 

64 

00 

E8 

03 

10 

27 

58 

C1B0 

BD 

00 

9A 

43 

4F 

50 

59 

52 

46 

ciaa 

49 

47 

48 

54 

20 

31 

39 

39 

72 

C1C0 

31 

00 

43 

4F 

4D 

50 

55 

54 

28 

C1C8 

45 

20 

50 

55 

42 

4C 

49 

43 

6F 

C1D0 

41 

54 

49 

4F 

4E 

53 

20 

49 

71 

C108 

4E 

54 

40 

20 

4C 

54 

44 

00 

60 

C1E0 

41 

4C 

4C 

20 

52 

49 

47 

43 

32 

C1E8 

54 

53 

20 

52 

45 

53 

45 

52 

EB 

C1F0 

56 

45 

44 

00 

0D 

50 

4C 

4F 

DB 

C1F8 

54 

54 

45 

52 

20 

45 

4E 

41 

7D 

C200 

42 

4C 

45 

44 

00 

00 

00 

00 

Ae 

Daniel  Lightner  lives  in  Sidney,  fvlon- 
tana.  He  is  the  author  of  Noahs  Arc, 
which  was  published  in  July  1991.    O 


SHOWDOWN 


By  Arihant  Jain 

Some  games  are  very  simple  to  play, 
but  difficult  to  master.  Showdown  is 
such  a  game. 

This  board  game  for  one  or  two  play- 
ers resembles  Chinese  checkers.  The 
board  has  32  pegs  arranged  in  in  a 
cross-shaped  grid,  with  one  open  po- 
sition in  the  center.  The  object  is  to 
clear  the  board  of  as  many  pegs  as  pos- 
sible. You  remove  a  peg  by  jumping  it 
with  an  adjacent  peg,  but  you  must 
land  in  an  empty  space.  If  that  space 
has  a  peg  in  it,  you  can't  jump. 

Typing  It  In 

Stiowdown  is  written  entirely  in  BASIC. 
To  avoid  typing  errors,  enter  the  pro- 
gram with  The  Automatic  Proofreader: 
see  "Typing  Aids"  elsewhere  in  this  sec- 


tion. Be  sure  to  save  a  copy  of  the  pro- 
gram when  you've  finished  typing  it  in. 

Let's  Ploy 

When  you  run  Showdown,  you'll  be 
asked  whether  you  want  to  play  or 
watch  a  replay  ot  an  earlier  game. 
Since  there  will  be  nothing  to  watch  at 
first,  press  P  for  play. 

You'll  then  be  asked  whether  you 
want  to  play  singles  or  a  combined  ef- 
fort. If  you  elect  to  play  alone,  make 
sure  your  joystick  is  in  port  2.  When 
two  people  play,  two  joysticks  are  re- 
quired, and  players  take  turns  jumping 
pegs. 

Pegs  are  removed  automatically 
when  you  jump  them.  Remember  that 
you  can  jump  a  peg  only  if  you  are 
next  to  it  and  the  space  on  the  other 
side  of  the  jumped  peg  is  vacant.  You 
can  only  jump  up,  down,  left,  or  right. 
Diagonal  moves  are  not  allowed. 

Use  the  joystick  to  position  your  cur- 
sor on  any  peg  you  like.  To  jump, 
press  the  fire  button  and  then  move 
the  stick  in  the  direction  you  want  to 
jump.  If  the  move  is  legal,  the  comput- 
er will  make  the  move  and  remove  the 
jumped  piece.  You'll  get  a  message  if 
a  move  is  illegal. 

When  you  have  removed  as  many 
pegs  as  possible,  press  the  @  key  to  re- 
ceive your  score  and  a  message 
about  how  well  you  played.  If  you  are 
sharp  and  have  planned  your  moves 
carefully,  it's  possible  to  remove  all  the 
pegs  but  one. 

Watch  a  Replay 

When  you've  finished  a  game,  you'll  be 
asked  if  you  want  to  save  it.  Saving 
games  will  give  you  a  chance  to 
watch  each  move  again  and  see 
where  you  went  wrong.  It'll  also  give 
you  a  chance  to  prove  to  others  how 
brilliantly  you  played. 

If  you  decide  to  save  a  game.  Show- 
down will  ask  for  a  filename  and  then 
your  name.  The  game  and  each  move 
will  be  saved  to  disk. 

To  see  a  saved  game,  press  R  for  re- 
play on  the  opening  screen  and  supply 
the  filename.  The  game  board  will  ap- 
pear, and  Showdown  will  automatical- 
ly play  back  every  move  you  made  dur- 
ing thai  game.  You  can  slow  down  the 
replay  moves  by  pressing  L  or  make 
them  move  faster  by  pressing  F. 


SHOWDOWN 


QF  100 

FR  110 

AK  120 

PC  130 


Rft  140 


JA  150 


HB  160 


RX  170 


SP  180 

XS  190 
HX  200 


FA  210 

PX  220 

GQ  230 

KX  240 

SM  250 

MG  260 

HS  270 

FC  280 

SR  290 

JJ  300 

HE  310 

EE  320 
BH  3  30 
DQ  34  9 

DD  350 

BH  360 

AJ  370 

DX  380 

KQ  390 
QS  400 


DIMF(2a00) ,G(2000) 

GOSUB  880 

GOSUB1000 

S  =  1475:0=1274:3=1391: 

C=1397:H=0:W=0:F=0:G=0: 

U  =  0 

PRINT" (CLR) {HOME} (BLK)" 

:P0KE  53280, 13:P0KE5328 

1,12 

PRINT" (4  DOWN) 

(10  RIGHT}{RVSJ 

{4  SPACES  HDOWN}  (LEFT} 

(SPACE} (DOWN} (LEFT} 

{5  LEFT}  (UP} (LEFT} 

{UP} (LEFT)  " 

PRINT" {HOME} {7  DOWN} 

{7  RIGHT){RVS} 

{3  S PACES} {OFF} WWW (RVS} 

{3  SPACES} {OFF} {UP} 

{6  LEFT} WWW" 

PRINT"(DOWN} {7  RIGHT} 

(RVS}  {DOWN} (LEFT} 

{DOWN} {LEFT}  {DOWN} 

{LEFT}{3  SPACES} {OFF}W 

{RVS}W{OFF}W{RVS} 

{3  SPACES) {UP}{LEFT} 

{UP5(LEFT}  {up} {LEFT} 

{8  LEFT} {OFF}"; 

P  R I  NT  "  WWWWVJWW  (  DOW  N  } 

(7  LEFT}WWW~WWW" 

PRINT" {8  RIGHT }WWWWWWW" 

PRINT"{D0WN3 {9  RIGHT} 

{RVS}  {0FF}WWWCRVS} 

{OFF}" 

PRINT" (9    RIGHT} (RVS} 

(5    SPACES}" 

IFH=-1THEN  1190 

V=2 

IFV=3THEN  V=l 

IFI=0THENV=2 

JO=USR{V) :GETAS 

IF(JOAND15)=1THENW=-40: 

GOTO480 

IF {J0AND15) =4THENW=-1:G 

OTO480 

IF(J0AND15)=8THENW=1:G0 

TO480 

IF(J0AND15) =2THENW=40:G 

OTO480 

IF(JOAND16)=0THEN  GOT03 

40 

IF  A$  ="@"  THEN  610 

GOTO  240 

JO=USR(V) :IF(JOAND15)=0 

THEN  GOTO340 

IF(J0AND15) =lTHENW=-40: 

GOTO400 

IF (J0AND15) =4THENW=-1:G 

OTO400 

IF{J0AND15) =8THENW=1:G0 

TO400 

IF{JOAND15)=2THENW=40:G 

OTO400 

GOTO  240 

Y=S+W:R=0;IF  PEEK(S)=21 

5THEN  R=R+1 


KF  410  IPPEEK(Y)=87THENR=R+1 
GG  420  IFPEEK(S+W+W)=32THENR=R 

+  1 
KF  430  IFR=3  THEN  450 
BX  440  GOTO  530 
JE  450  M=M+1:POKES,32:POKES+W, 

32:GOSUB560:POKE  S+W+W, 

215:S=S+W+W: V=V+l:a=U+l 
XH  460  F(U}=1:G(U)=W 
PB  470  GOTO  240 
JS  480  J=0:Z=PEEK(S) :y=S+W  :IF 

PEEK(Y) =87THENQ=87:J=J+ 

1 
AH  490  IFPEEK(Y)=32THENQ=32:J= 

J  +  1 
FD  500  IF  J=l  THEN  520 
SB  510  GOSUB  530 
KH  520  POKES, Z-128:POKES+W,Q+l 

28:S=S+W:U=U+1:F(U)=0:G 

(U)=W:G0TO  240 
QM  530  PRINT"{HOME}{22  D0WN}IL 

LEGAL  MOVE": GOSUB  560 
DQ  540  PRINT" {HOME} (22  DOWN} 

{12    SPACES}" 
SG    550    G0T0(2    SPACES} 240 
HR    560    REM 
EE    570   POKE54296,15:POKE54277, 

64:POKE5427  3,162:POKE54 

272,37 
SQ    580    POKE54276,17:FORT=1TO20 

0:NEXT 
HJ    590    POKE54276,16:FORT=1TO50 

:NEXT 
HP    600    RETURN 
MK    610    J=32-M:F(U+1)=-1:G(U+1) 

=  0 

BX  620  PRINT"(CLR} (2  DOWN)";J; 

"PEGS  REMAINING{2  DOWN} 
II 

AR  630  IPJ>10THEN  PRINT"POOR!" 

:W=-1:GOTO700 
FG  640  IFJ>7THEN  PRINT "SATISFA 

CTORY  PLAY !":W=-1:GOT07 

00 
HA  650  IFJ>5THEN  PRINT "GOOD !" ; 

W=4:GOTO700 
RH  660  IFJ>3THEN  PRINT"GREAT ! " 

:W=5:GOTO700 
BQ  670  IFJ>2THEN  PRINT"WELL  PL 

AYED ! " :W=1 1 : GOTO700 
FH  680  IFJ>1THEN  PRINT"MISSED 1 

":W=6:GOTO700 
BX  690  IFJ>0THEN  PRINT"DID  IT! 

":W=6:GOTO700 
EB  700  PRINT" {3  D0WN3wANT  TO  S 

AVE?  (Y/N)" 
QF  710  GETK$:IF  KS=""THEN710 
JB  720  IF  K$<>"N"ANDKS<>"Y"THE 

N  710 
KQ  730  IFKS-"N"  THEN  800 

XF  740  INPUT"FILENAHE";N5:INPU 

T"YOUR  NAME";M$ 
SR  750  OPEN15,B,15:OPEN2,8,2," 

ia0:"+N9+",S,W" 
HG  760  PRINT#2,M$:F0RV=1T0U+1 
JB  770  PRINT#2,F(V) 
RM  780  PRINT#2,G(V) :NEXT  V 
JS  790  CL0SE2:CL0SE15 


AA  800  PRINT" {3  □OWN}WANT  TO  P 

LAY?  (Y/N)" 
FB  810  IFW<0THENGOTO840 
JD  820  QZ=4*40:FORK=QZ+55336TO 
QZ+553  36+W;POKEK,V:V=V+ 
1:IFV>255THENV=0 
QP  830  NEXT  K 
AH  840  GET  MS: IF  M$=""  THEN  31 

0 
CG  850  IF  H5="S"THENPRINT" 

{CLR}":END 
PB  860  IF  M$="Y"  THENGOTO  120 
JQ  870  GOTO  840 
MK  880  JJ=49152:JH=INT (JJ/2S6) 
;  JL=JJ--JH*256:P0KE785,J 
L;POKE786,JH 
SC  890  FORK=JJTOJJ+67:READ  Y:P 

OKEK,Y:NEXT 
RQ  900  DATA  120,70,97,176,21,1 

69,127,141 
FS  910  DATA  0,220, 173, 1;220, 20 

1,255,240 
QE  920  DATA  4,169,31,208,13,17 

3,0,220 
PC  930  DATA  16,8,169,255,141,0 

,220,173 
XC  940  DATA  1,220,41,31,73,15, 

208,4 
HH  950  DATA  133,97,240,23,133, 

98,169,136 
BA  960  DATA  133,97,169,0,133,9 

9,133,100 
CX  970  DATA  133,101,133,102,19 

8,97,6,98 
CF  980  DATA  16,250,88,96 
CE  990  RETURN 

QB  1000  PRINT"(CLR}{2  DOWN}PLA 
Y,  WATCH  A  REPLAY  (P/R 
)"CHRS(142) 
ER  1010  GETF$:IFF$=""THEN1010 
RR  1020  IFF$="P"  THEN  1050 
KR  1030  IFF$="R"THEN  1120 
HS  1040  GOTO  1010 
JQ  1050  PRIOT"{CLR}{2  D0WN}0NE 
OR  TWO  PLAYER  GAME?  ( 
1/2)" 
GR  1060  GET  1$: :IFI$=""THEN106 

0 
PB  1070  IFI$="1"THEN  I=0:GOTO1 

100 
DG  1080  IFIS-"2"  THENI=1:G0T0 

{SPACE}990 
QH  1090  GOTO  1060 
JQ  1100  H=0:PRINT"{2  DOWN}JOYS 

TICK  IN  PORT  2" 
SP  1110  PRINT"PRESS  "CHR$(34)" 
@"CHRS (34)"  TO  END":FO 
R  E=l  TO  900:NEXT:RETU 
RN 
JF  1120  U=0:N=0:INPUT"FILENAME 

"|N$ 
QR  1130  OPEN15,8,15:OPEN2,8,2, 
"0:"+N$+",S,R": INPUT#2 
,M$ 
MK  1140  GOTO  1330 
EA  1150  INPUT#2,F(U) ,G(U) 
DS  1160  IFF(U)=-1  THEN  U=U-1;G 
OTO1180 


G-33 


PROGRAMS 


KF  1170  U=U+1:G0T0  1150 

FR  1180  H=-1:PRIKT"{CLR}":G0T0 

150 
XD  1190  S=1475:TIt=200 
XH  1200  FOR  V=0TO(J 
GJ  1210  E=S+G(V) :GETA$ 
KR  1220  IF  F(V)=0THEN  POKES , PE 

EK(S>-128;POKE  E,PEEK( 

E)     +128:S=S+G(V) 
EG    1238    IF    F(V)»1    THENPOKES,32 

:P0KEE,32:POKEE+G(V) ,2 

15     :S=S+G{V) +G{V) :GOSU 

B560 
JP  1240  IFA$="F"THENTI%=TI%-50 
HF  1250  IFA$="L"THENTI%=TI»+50 
CJ  1260  IF  TI%>1000THENTI|=100 

0 
RA  1270  IF  TI%<0THENTII=0 
HR  1280  F0RA=1T0TI%:NEXT:NEXTV 

:PRINT"BY:";M$ 

QH  1290  PRINT"  {2  DOWN  HRVS}  PRE 

SS  SPACE  BAR  TO  CONTIN 

OE" 
HJ  1300  GETA$:IFAS<>"  "THEN  13 

00 
JA  1310  CLOSE2:CLOSE15 
SR  1320  RESTORE:GOTO  110 
XM  1330  INPUT|15,EN,EMS,ET,ES 
XQ  1340  IF  EN>0THENPRINTEH5:GO 

TO  1360 
AH  1350  GOTO  1150 
XH  1360  CLOSE15:CLOSE2;GOTO  11 

20 


Arihant  Jain  lives  in  Ludlniana,  a  city  in 
northwest  India.  □ 


MEDIUM-DENSITY 
DRIVER 

By  Matthew  Spinks 

Over  the  years,  I've  done  a  good  deal 
of  graphics  w/ork  on  my  computer  that 
has  included  platting  graphs  and  draw- 
ing pictures.  I've  always  been  frustrat- 
ed by  the  high-resolution  graphics  sys- 
tem used  by  the  64.  It's  generally  more 
trouble  than  it's  worth  when  all  you 
want  to  do  is  plot  a  simple  graph  or  pic- 
ture. 

At  the  other  extreme  of  the  graphics 
spectrum,  the  resolution  of  the  normal 
text  screen  is  usually  too  low  to  provide 
the  detail  required  by  straightforward 
graphs  or  pictures.  What  is  needed  is 
a  graphics  mode  between  the  two  ex- 
tremes, a  mode  which  offers  a  reasona- 
ble resolution  but  avoids  the  complexi- 
ty associated  with  bitmapped  graphics. 

Such  a  graphics  mode  does  exist.  If 
you  enter  PRINT  CHR$(190):  PRINT 
G-a-i       COMPUTE 


CHR$(188):  PRINT  CHR${187):  PRINT 
CHR$(172),  you'll  see  four  characters 
on  the  screen.  Each  one  fills  one  quad- 
rant of  a  whole  text  cell.  These  charac- 
ters enable  the  normal  text  screen  to  be 
turned  into  a  medium-resolution  graph- 
ics screen  which  has  twice  the  resolu- 
tion of  the  ordinary  text  screen.  This  for- 
mat provides  new  screen  dimensions  of 
80  points  horizontally  by  50  points  ver- 
tically, an  overall  resolution  of  4000 
plot  points. 

This  medium-density  graphics  mode 
has  an  attractive,  chunky  feel  to  it  and 
is  excellent  for  plotting  graphs  and  draw- 
ing simple  pictures.  It  also  allows  text 
and  graphics  to  coexist  peacefully.  Un- 
like bitmap  mode,  the  medium-density 
graphics  mode  requires  no  extra  mem- 
ory to  store  graphics  data,  and  it  re- 
quires only  a  small  graphics  driver.  Per- 
haps best  of  all,  the  medium-density 
graphics  mode  is  simple  and  easy  to 
use. 

Entering  the  Program 

Medium-Densily  Driver  is  a  short  rou- 
tine written  entirely  in  machine  lan- 
guage. To  enter  it,  use  MLX.  our  ma- 
chine language  entry  program;  see 
"Typing  Aids"  elsewhere  in  this  sec- 
tion. When  MLX  prompts,  respond 
with  the  following  values, 

Starting  address:  033C 
Ending  address:  03D3 

When  you've  finished  typing,  be  sure 
to  save  a  copy  of  the  program  before 
exiting  MLX. 

The  driver  sits  safely  in  the  cassette 
buffer,  leaving  the  overused  area  at 
49152  (SCOOO)  free  for  your  own  pro- 
grams. This  lets  you  plot  individual 
points  to  the  normal  text  screen. 

After  you've  typed  in  a  copy  of  the 
driver,  you  can  then  use  it  to  create 
your  own  medium-density  graphic 
screens.  To  use  it,  simply  load  the  ma- 
chine language  program  with  the  ,8,1 
extension  and  type  NEW.  This  NEW 
command  is  necessary  because  it  re- 
sets some  Important  BASIC  pointers. 

The  Plot  Thickens 

To  plot  graphs  or  pictures,  simply  use 
the  command  SY3828,  x,  y,  on/off,  col- 
or. Here  x  and  y  are  the  screen  coor- 
dinates for  points  to  be  plotted.  The 


range  is  0-79  on  the  x-axis  and  0-49 
along  the  y-axis.  On/off  is  a  flag  which 
determines  whether  or  not  a  point  is 
plotted  or  erased.  If  on/off  =  1,  a  point 
will  be  plotted.  If  on/off  =  0,  a  point 
will  be  erased.  Color,  of  course,  is  the 
color  of  the  point  to  be  plotted  and 
should  be  in  the  range  0-15,  represent- 
ing the  standard  Commodore  colors. 

For  example,  to  plot  a  white  point  at 
the  top  left-hand  corner  of  the  screen, 
enter  the  following  command: 

SYS828,  0,  0, 1,1 

Similarly,  to  erase  a  point  at  the  oppo- 
site corner  (the  bottom  right-hand  cor- 
ner), the  command  SYS828,  79,  49,  0, 
1  would  be  used.  Note  that  despite  the 
fact  that  we  are  erasing  a  point,  the  col- 
or must  still  be  specified.  This  is  nec- 
essary because  the  program  checks 
all  parameters,  and  if  any  value  falls  out- 
side the  ranges  mentioned  or  if  any 
parameter  is  missing,  you'll  get  a  SYN- 
TAX ERROR. 

Points  to  Ponder 

Because  the  medium-density  graphics 
mode  uses  the  normal  text  screen  and 
color  memories,  setting  the  color  of 
one  point  will  also  affect  the  color  of 
the  neighboring  three  points.  Some 
care  must  be  taken  when  plotting  in 
more  than  one  color  to  achieve  the  de- 
sired effect.  Although  this  may  seem 
like  a  drawback  at  first,  it  does  have 
the  advantage  of  allowing  text  and  stan- 
dard Commodore  graphics  characters 
to  be  integrated  onto  the  graphics 
screen. 

Text  can  be  printed  and  character 
values  can  be  poked  to  the  screen  in 
the  normal  way.  Note,  however,  that 
with  the  graphics  driver  you  can  nei- 
ther erase  text  or  nongraphtcs  charac- 
ters nor  plot  over  text  or  other  char- 
acters. This  prevents  text  and  other 
graphics  from  being  accidentally 
erased. 

A  Demonstration 

Demo  is  a  short  demonstration  pro- 
gram written  entirely  in  BASIC.  It  will 
give  you  some  idea  of  how  you  can 
use  the  driver.  To  help  prevent  typing 
errors,  use  The  Automatic  Proofreader 
to  type  it  in;  see  "Typing  Aids"  else- 
where in  this  section. 


Demo  plots  Lissajous  figures. 
These  are  a  series  of  curves  found  by 
combining  perpendicular  harmonic  mo- 
tions. They  are  commonly  exhibited  by 
feeding  two  harmonic  frequencies  into 
an  oscilloscope's  X  and  V  input  cir- 
cuits. (Don't  worry.  You  don't  have  to  un- 
derstand Lissajous  figures  to  see  how 
the  program  works.  They're  easier  to 
demonstrate  than  to  explain.) 

Before  running  the  demonstration, 
make  sure  Driver  is  already  in  memo- 
ry. When  running  the  demonstration, 
try  experimenting  with  the  values  the 
program  asks  for.  Entering  1,2  will  pro- 
duce entirely  different  results  than  will 
2,1. 

The  patterns  produced  will  be  in  mon- 
ochrome, but  you  can  easily  add  color 
by  changing  the  value  of  the  color  var- 
iable, C,  in  line  270.  For  a  rainbow  of 
color,  try  Demo  with  these  lines  added. 

262  C=C+1 

264  IF  C°16  THEN  C=0 

Now  that  you  have  an  idea  of  how  Me- 
dium-Density Dr/Verworks,  try  creating 
some  figures  or  patterns  of  your  own. 

MEDIUM  DENSITY  DRIVER 


033C 

•A0 

03 

8C 

D2 

03 

20 

00 

E2 

8D 

a34'l 

8A 

AC 

D2 

03 

D9 

BE 

03 

80 

C5 

034C 

6E 

99 

D3 

03 

88 

10 

EB 

A9 

A0 

0354 

02 

SD 

D7 

03 

4E 

D5 

03 

90 

4A 

035C 

06 

as 

D7 

03 

0E 

D7 

03 

4E 

38 

0364 

D6 

03 

90 

03 

4E 

D7 

03 

AE 

5F 

036C 

D5 

03 

20 

F0 

E9 

AD 

D6 

03 

E7 

0374 

18 

65 

Dl 

85 

Dl 

90 

02 

E6 

2E 

037C 

D2 

20 

24 

EA 

A0 

00 

Bl 

Dl 

61 

0384 

A2 

0F 

OD 

C2 

03 

F0 

04 

CA 

36 

038C 

10 

F8 

60 

AD 

D4 

03 

F0 

lA 

6E 

0394 

E0 

0F 

F0 

15 

AD 

D3 

03 

91 

92 

039C 

F3 

SA 

2C 

D7 

03 

D0 

0A 

18 

C9 

03A4 

6D 

D7 

03 

AA 

BD 

C2 

03 

91 

F2 

0  3  AC 

Dl 

60 

8A 

2C 

D7 

03 

F0 

F9 

6E 

03B4 

38 

ED 

t:7 

03 

4C 

A7 

03 

4C 

D0 

03BC 

08 

AF 

10 

02 

32 

50 

20 

7C 

64 

03C4 

7E 

E2 

6C 

El 

7F 

FB 

7B 

FF 

51 

0  3CC: 

61 

EC 

62 

FE 

FC 

A0 

00 

00 

65 

DEMO 


ex  100  REM  DRIVER  DEMONSTRATIO 

N 
BF  110  REM  COPYRIGHT  1991  -  CO 

MPUTE  PUBLICATIONS  INTL 
LTD  -  ALL  RIGHTS  RESER 

VED 
JB  120  REM  MAKE  SURE  DRIVER  IS 

IN  MEMORY! 
DK  130  : 
KX  135  PI=3. 14159 


JS  140 

GK  150 

RD  160 

RX  170 

QE  180 

BH  190 

DR  200 

HP  210 

XM  220 

MR  230 

QP  240 

SF  250 

RR  260 


POKE  53280, 11:P0KE  5328 

PRINTCHR$(147)CHRS (5) 
PRINTTAB(ll) "LISSAJOUS 
{SPACE}FIGURES"CHRS (17) 
PRINT"PRESS  ANY  KEY  AFT 
ER  VIEWING  FIGURE" 
PRINTCHRS (17) "ENTER  ANY 

TWO  NUMBERS,  EACH" 
INPUT"WITH  VALUES  LESS 
{SPACE}THAN  5";X,Y 
IF  X>5  OR  Y>5  THEN  180 
PR1NTCHR$  (147) 
FL^lrGOSUB  260 
WAIT 
260 


198,1 


POKE  198,0 

FL=0:GOSUB 

END 

FOR  T=l  TO  2*PI*100+(10 

*PI* (X+Y) ) 
JK  270  SYS  828, (1+SIN  (X*T) ) *40 

,  (l+COS  (Y*T) )*25,FL,C 
SD  280  NEXT 
SK  290  RETURN 


Matthew  Spinks, 
Make/- (May  1991) 
ria,  Australia. 


who  wrote  Loader- 
,  lives  in  Erica,  Victo- 

□ 


RAPIDFORMAT128 

By  f*/1ahmood  Hasan  Merchant 
A  number  of  fast  formatting  programs 
have  been  around  for  the  64  ever  since 
the  1541  disk  drive  was  introduced  by 
Commodore.  These  programs  greatly  im- 
prove the  performance  of  the  drive  in 
terms  of  time  saved. 

Commodore  probably  took  a  lesson 
from  these  programmers  and  added  a 
much  more  efficient  format  routine  into 
its  1571  disk  drive.  The  drive  formats  a 
double-sided  disk  in  41  seconds,  but 
wouldn't  we  all  appreciate  an  even  fast- 
er procedure?  RapidFormat  128 
should  do  the  trick. 

RapidFormat  t28  is  an  easy-to-use, 
prompt-driven  program  for  the  128  that 
cuts  almost  in  half  the  time  required  to 
format  all  70  tracks  of  a  double-sided 
disk.  II  will  format  a  single-sided  disk  in 
a  mere  12  seconds. 

Getting  Started 

RapidFormat  128  is  written  entirely  in 
BASIC.  To  help  prevent  typing  errors, 
use  The  Automatic  Proofreader  to 
type  it  in;  see  "Typing  Aids"  elsewhere 
in  this  section.  When  you've  finished  typ- 
ing, be  sure  to  save  a  copy  of  the  pro- 
gram. When  you  type  RUN,  the  data 


will  be  read  and  written  to  disk  as 
RapidFormat,  a  machine  language  pro- 
gram. 

Once  RapidFormat  has  been  gener- 
ated, it  can  be  loaded  and  activated 
with  the  command  RUN  "RAPIDFOR- 
MAT". At  this  point  you  should  remove 
the  disk  containing  the  program  and  in- 
sert the  disk  which  is  to  be  formatted. 
You  are  prompted  to  indicate  whether 
you  wish  to  format  only  the  top  side  (for 
1541  use)  or  both  sides  of  the  disk.  If 
you  frequently  need  to  access  your 
files  both  in  the  64  and  128  modes, 
then  it  may  be  a  good  idea  to  format  on- 
ly the  top  side  ol  the  disk.  This  will  pre- 
vent the  annoying  Illegal  Track  or  Sec- 
tor error  message  which  results  when 
part  of  the  file  being  accessed  lies  on 
a  disk's  second  side. 

To  V  or  Not  to  V? 

Next  you  have  to  specify  whether  you 
wish  to  verify  the  format.  If  verification 
is  enabled,  each  sector  on  every  track 
is  read  and  checked  for  errors.  If  any 
are  spotted,  they  are  reported  by  the 
program.  However,  choosing  this  op- 
tion will  slow  down  the  formatting  some- 
what. To  format  a  disk  at  maximum 
speed,  omit  the  verify  option. 

This  option  is  provided  to  meet  the 
needs  of  various  users.  Write  errors  oc- 
cur rarely  with  the  1571,  and  if  you 
have  reasonable  faith  in  the  head  align- 
ment of  your  drive  (1571s  are  more 
trustworthy  in  this  regard  than  older 
1541s),  then  you  may  save  time  by 
choosing  not  to  verify.  As  long  as  the 
disk  used  is  at  least  of  average  quali- 
ty, there  shouldn't  be  any  problems. 

If,  however,  the  idea  of  not  verifying 
makes  you  nervous,  then  you  have  the 
option.  I  would  strongly  advise  you  to 
verify  if  you  are  using  generic  or  low- 
quality  disks  or  if  you  wish  to  format 
both  sides  of  a  disk  which  is  certified 
only  for  single-side  use.  In  these  cas- 
es, the  caution  and  the  extra  time  are 
probably  worth  it. 

Enter  a  name  for  the  disk  as  you 
would  in  a  conventional  format  routine. 
Be  sure  it  is  no  longer  than  16  charac- 
ters and  is  followed  by  a  2-character 
ID,  This  ID  is  written  as  a  sort  of  signa- 
ture to  every  sector  on  the  disk,  and  its 
main  purpose  is  to  indicate  to  the 
drive  when  a  disk  has  been  changed. 

Once  you  press  Return,  the  disk  will 

35 


PROGRAMS 


start  to  format.  Make  sure  that  the  disk 
containing  RapidFormat  is  not  in  the 
dnve.  To  be  safe,  put  write-protect 
tabs  on  disks  that  contain  programs  or 
valuable  data.  RapidFormat  checks  for 
write-protect  tabs.  If  it  finds  one,  the 
disk  will  not  be  formatted,  and  an  error 
message  will  be  displayed.  Using  write- 
protect  tabs  on  all  valuable  disks  is  a 
good  practice  to  follow. 

How  It  Works 

RapidFormat  works  by  reprogramming 
the  disk  drive.  It  transfers  a  section  of 
code  to  the  buffer  at  address  $0500. 
Once  activated,  the  program  copies 
the  standard  format  routine  from  the 
drive  ROM  to  the  internal  RAM  and 
makes  a  few  changes  to  it. 

If  the  verify  option  is  not  chosen, 
these  routines  are  bypassed.  Addition- 
al time  is  saved  by  using  a  fixed  value 
to  space  out  sectors  on  all  tracks.  The 
standard  format  routine  writes  and  re- 
writes on  each  track  to  calculate  the  in- 
dividual length  of  gaps  between  sec- 
tors. 

This  modification,  coupled  with  fast- 
er changing  of  tracks,  brings  about  the 
speed  improvement  of  RapidFormat. 
Disks  formatted  with  this  program 
work  just  as  well  as  those  formatted  us- 
ing the  standard  routine. 

RAPIDFORMAT  128 

SH  10  BANK1:SCNCLR:COLOR0,15:C 

0L0B4,15:C0L0R5,2 
EC  20  PRINTCHR$(18) " 

(16  SPACES}786/1I0 

{17  SPACES}"; 
PC  33  PRINT" [11  SPACES }RAPIDFO 

RMAT  -  1571(11  SPACES}"; 
MQ  40  PRINT"  COPYRIGHT  1991  - 

(SPACE }C0MPUTE  PUBS  INTL 
LTD  "; 
DE  50  PRINT"{11  SPACES}ALL  RIG 

HTS  RESERVED (10  SPACES}" 

AG  70  SA=7169:EA=8153:DT=16 
DA  80  PRINTCHRS (17)SPC(14) "REA 
DING  ML!"CHR$ (17)CKRS(17 

) 
PF  90  FOR1=0TODT-2:READ  DS:D=D 

EC{DS) 
GS  100  CHARl,ll,ia:PRINT"LOADI 
NG  AT:(2  SPACES}";HEX$( 
SA  +  I) 

QM  110  pokesa+i,d:ck«CK+d;next 

:READ  DS:D=DEC{D$) :CK=C 

KAND255 
DB    120    IFDOCKTHENBEGIN 
QK    130     :PRINTCHR$(17)"DATA    ERR 

G-36   COMPUTE 


OR  IN  LINE"; 

KD  140  :PRINTPEEK(65)+256*PEEK 

(66) :STOP 
FR  150  BEND 
PR  160  SA=SA+DT-I:CK=0:IFSA<=E 

AGOTO90 
JK  170  PRINTCHRS (17)CHRS(17) "P 
RESS  "CHR$(18)"  RETURN 
(SPACE}"; 
XA  180  PRINTCHRS (146) "  TO  SAVE 

' RAPIDFORMAT ' " ; : INPUTD 
$ 
XA  190  BSAVE"RAPIDFORMAT",Bl,P 
(7169)  TO  P(EA+1) :PRINT 
DS5 
MB  200  END 
QR  210  : 
JS  220  : 
FC  1000  DATA  49,1C,0A,00,99,22 

,93, 22, A3, 35, 29, 22, 12, 

20,52,86 
BH  1010  DATA  20,41,20,50,20,49 

, 20, 44, 20, 46, 20, 4F, 20, 

52,20,05 
HM  1020  DATA  40,20,41,20,54,20 

,20,20,31,35,37,31,20, 

92,22,31 
HK  1030  DATA  3A, 20, 4E , 24 ,B2, 22 

,22,3A,56,24,B2,22,22, 

3A,49,EF 
QK  1040  DATA  44  ,  24 ,B2, 22 , 22, 3A 

, 53, 24, B2, 22, 22, 00, 74, 

1C,14,A9 
XE  1050  DATA  00, 99, A3, 35, 29, 22 

,12,20,20,20,28,31,39, 

39,30,29 
XM  1060  DATA  29,20,20,40,41,48 

,4D,4F,4F, 44, 20,40,45, 

52,43,B5 
XE  1070  DATA  48, 41, 4E, 54, 20, 20 

,20,92,22,00,9E,1C,1E, 

00,99,80 
KF  1080  DATA  22, 11, 11, 46, 4F, 52 

,40,41,54,20,54,59,50, 

45,3A,A9 
BS  1090  DATA  20,20,12,20,31,20 

, 92, 20, 20, 42, 4F, 54, 48, 

20,53,35 
FG  1100  DATA  49,44,45,53,11,22 

, 00, BE, IC, 28, 00, 99, A3, 

31,34,FB 
SX  1110  DATA  29,22,12,20,32,20 

, 92, 20, 20, 54, 4F, 50, 20, 

53,49,50 
PQ  1120  DATA  44,45,20,4F,4E,4C 

,59, 22, 00,04,10,32,00, 

99,A3,6B 
XC  1130  DATA  31,35,29,22,11,31 

,9D,9D,9D,22,3B,3A,85, 

53,24,50 
XB  1140  DATA  00,EC,1C,3C,00,8B 

,A8, 53, 24,62,22,31,22, 

AF,A8,6C 
PX  1150  DATA  53, 24, B2, 22, 32, 22 

,89,35,30,00,FF,1C,41, 

00,88,74 
PH  1160  DATA  53,24,B2,22,32,22 

,A7,53,24,B2,22,30,22, 


00,12,F5 

AJ  1170  DATA  ID, 43, 00, 53,24,82 

,C7,28,C6,28,53,24,29, 

AB,34,E5 
X8  1180  DATA  38,29,30,38,10,46 

,00,99,22,11,11,56,45, 

52,49,0F 
EJ  1190  DATA  46, 59, 3F, 20, 28, 59 

,2F,4E,29,22,A3,31,3S, 

29,22,98 
GS  1200  DATA  4E,9D,9D,9D,22,3B 

,3A,85,4E,24,00,50,1D, 

50,00,70 
AB  1210  DATA  88 , A8 , 4E , 24 ,B2 , 22 

,59,22,AF,A8,4E,24,B2, 

22,4E,DF 
EX  1220  DATA  22 , 39 , 3 1 , 30 , 00 , 6A 

,10,55,00,56,24,82,22, 

30,22,88 
BB  1230  DATA  3A,8B,4E, 24,82,22 

,59, 22, A7, 56,24,82,22, 

31,22,CE 
XR  1240  DATA  00 , 7D, ID, 57 , 00 , 56 

,24,B2,C7,2a,C6,28,56, 

24,29,90 
MX  1250  DATA  AB , 34 , 38 , 29 , 00 , 94 

, ID, 5A, 00, 99, 22, 11, 11, 

4E,41,B7 
XX  1260  DATA  40,45, 22 , A3, 31 , 33 

,29,38,3A,85,4E,24,00, 

AD, ID, 1 A 
PK  1270  DATA  64 , 00 , 8B,C3 , 28 , 4E 

,24,29,B2,3O,B0,C3,28, 

4E,24,64 
HD  1280  DATA  29,81,31,36,89,31 

,30,00,C2,1D,6E,00,99, 

22,11,44 
BB  1290  DATA  49 , 44 , 22, A3, 31 , 33 

, 29, 38, 3A, 85, 49, 44, 24, 

00,D4,5E 
PM  1300  DATA  10,78,00,38,03,28 

,49,44,24,29,33,81,32, 

8  9,31,3  5 
AX  1310  DATA  30,0a,DE, 10,82, 00 

,9E,37,37,32,30,00,FB, 

1D,8C,BF 
EH  1320  DATA  00 , 99 , A3 , 31 , 34 , 29 

,22,11,11,11,12,20,46, 

4F,52,38 
RK  1330  DATA  4D  ,  41 , 54  ,  54 , 49  ,  4E 

,47, 20, 92, 22, 00, 26, IE, 

96,00,C2 
EK  1340  DATA  9F , 31 , 35 , 20, 38 , 2C 

,31,35,3A,98,31,35,2C, 

22,55,06 
GA  1350  DATA  34,22,53,24,56,24 

,49,44,24,22,2C,22,4E, 

24,3A,14 
FE  1360  DATA  A0, 31 , 35 , 3A,  99  ,  44 

,53,24,00,00,00,A6,BA, 

A0,0F,A3 
XD  1370  DATA  A9 , 00 , 20 , 38 , F7 , 8 5 

,87,20,C0,FF,A6,B8,20, 

C9,FF, 59 
«E  1380  DATA  20 , 7D,FF, 55 , 30 , 3E 

,52,01,00,20,CC,FF,A9, 

05,A0,E8 
RB  1390  DATA  00 ,85,FB, 84 ,FA, A2 


XA 

uee 

BH 

1410 

DH 

1420 

EF 

1430 

BE 

1440 

RR 

1450 

CO 

1460 

BD 

1470 

CR 

1480 

HG 

1490 

RR 

1500 

SM 

1510 

MG 

1520 

BR 

1530 

AG 

1540 

PG 

1550 

GP 

1560 

HJ 

1570 

JC 

1580 

RC 

1590 

HQ 

1600 

PX 

1610 

,aA,8  6,FE,A9,AF,85,FC, 

A9,1E,CE 

DATA  85,FD,A5,BA,20,3E 

,E3,A9,6F,20,D2,E4,A9, 

40,20,26 

DATA  03,E5,A9,2D,20,03 

,E5,fl9,57,20,03,E5,A5, 

FA, 20,80 

DATA  03,E5,A5,FB,20,03 

,E5,A9,20,20,03,E5,A0, 

00,Bl,B2 

DATA  FC,20,03,E5,C8,C0 

,20,90,F6,20,26,E5,18, 

A5,FC,16 

DATA  69, 20, 85, FC, 90, 02 

,E6,FD,13,R5,FA,69,20, 

8  5,FA,3E 

DATA  90,02,S6,FB,C6,FE 

,D0,AF,4C,E7,FF,4C,46, 

05,20,9F 

DATA  C2,05,20,7C,87,A2 

,00,8e,0B,A2,24,8e,0A, 

AD, 02, 22 

DATA  02,85,1F,F0,08,A9 

, 80,85,02, AS, 02, 30, FC, 

A2,01,F4 

DATA  86,0A,A9,E0,85,02 

,A5,02,30,FC,C9,02,90, 

03,4C,1D 

DATA  0A,E6,20,05,F0,A9 

,24,A6,1F,F0,02,A9,47, 

A0,07,20 

DATA  8C,7A,02,4C,73,A7 

,AD,00,1C,29,I0,D0,05, 

A9,08,F6 

DATA  4C,B5,99,A9,60,85 

,20,A5,0A,a5,51,85,67, 

20,4B,24 

DATA  F2, 85, 43, 20, 50, 06 

,A5,1F,F0,10,20,F8,93, 

1B,A5,5C 

DATA  51,69,23,85,51,20 

,50,06,20,F5,9  3,A6,0A, 

E8,E0,49 

DATA  24,00,12,86,14,20 

,E7,87,C6,14,D0,F9,A2, 

12,86,08 

DATA  0A,A9,01,4C,B5,99 

,86,0A,BD,08,94,85,44, 

AD, 00, AD 

DATA  IC, 29, 9F, 05,44,80 

,00,1C,20,DF,87,20,DF, 

87,A5,87 

DATA  IF, 00,03,40,46,05 

,C6,64,C6,64,20,F8,93, 

20,DF,87 

DATA  a7,20,DF,87,20,F5 

,93,4C,46,05,20,FE,05, 

A9,E9,01 

DATA  A0,06,8D,77,07,8C 

,78,07,A9,01,8D,CD,06, 

A9,0A,79 

DATA  80, 20, 06, A9, 08, 80 

,26,06,A9,C5,A0,0  7,8D, 

B9,07,7F 

DATA  8C,BA,07,A9,60,8D 

,EE, 07, AD, 03, 02, 00,05, 

A9,4C,54 


KX  1620  DATA  8D, 9A, 07 , 60,B1, 14 

,91,2C,C8,60,AD,04,02, 

AC,05,9C 
1630  DATA  02, 85, 12, 84, 13, A9 

, 93, A0, 98,85, 14, 84, 15, 

A9,06,88 
1640  DATA  A0,50,85,2O,84,2C 

,A0,00,20,F3,05,D0,FB, 

E6,15,05 
FF  1650  DATA  E6 , 2D , 20 ,F8 , 05 ,C0 

,9E,D0,F9,60,00,00,00, 

00,00,87 


AM 


DC 


Mahmood  Hasan  Merchant  is  an  ec- 
onomics student  at  the  London  School 
of  Economics  and  Political  Science.  He 
is  from  Pakistan.  a 


TYPING  AIDS 

MLX,  the  machine  language  entry  program 
for  the  64  and  128,  and  The  Aiiiomaric 
Proofreader  are  utilities  that  help  you  type 
in  Gazette  programs  withoui  making  mis- 
takes.These  labor-saving  utilities  are  on  each 
Gazette  Disk  and  printed  in  issues  of  Gazette 
through  June  1990. 

If  you  don't  have  access  to  a  back  issue  or  to 
oneof  ourdisks.  write  and  we'll  send  you  free 
copies  of  both  of  the.se  handy  utilities.  We'll 
also  include  iastructions  on  how  to  type  in 
Gazette  programs.  Please  enclose  a  self-ad- 
dre.s.s.  stamped  envelope.  Write  to  Typing 
Aids,  compute's  Gazelte,  324  West  Wen- 
dover  Avenue,  Greensboro,  North 
Carolina  27408. 


Gazette  is  looking  for  utilities, 
games,  applications,  educa- 
tional programs,  and  tutorial  ar- 
ticles. If  you've  created  a 
program  that  you  think  other 
readers  might  enjoy  or  find 
useful,  send  it  on  disk  to 

Gazette  Submissions  Reviewer 
COMPUTE  Publications 
324  W.  Wendover  Ave. 
Ste.  200 
Greensboro,  NC  27408 

Please  enclose  an  SASE  if  you 
wish  to  have  the  materials 
returned. 


ONLY 
ON  DISK 

in  addition  to  the  type-in  programs 
found  in  each  issue  of  the  maga- 
zine, Gazette  Disk  offers  bonus 
programs  and  original  64  and  1 28 
artwork.  Here  are  the  programs 
featured  this  month. 

Super  Cataloguer  128 

Diego  Martin  Zamboni 
Mexico  City,  Mexico 

Catalogue  all  of  your  software  (up  to 
2500  titles)  quickly  and  easily  with 
this  outstanding  utility  for  the  1 28.  An 
80-column  monitor  is  required. 

Read  a  disk  directory,  select  which 
files  you  wish  to  add  to  the  list,  and 
then  save  them,  sort  them,  search 
through  them,  and  delete  names  at 
the  touch  of  a  key.  If  you  can't  recall 
the  contents  of  a  file,  the  program  will 
list  it  to  the  screen.  It  even  works  with 
sequential,  user,  and  relative  files. 

Super  Cataloguer  128  is  also  a 
great  disk  manager.  You  can  edit 
filenames  and  delete  files,  whole 
disks,  or  even  portions  of  disks.  The 
program  provides  memory  informa- 
tion, prints  lists  in  several  modes, 
and  much  more.  This  is  one  utility  all 
128  users  should  have. 

Spanish  Vocabulary  Quiz 

Christopher  M.  Stoy 
Edensburg,  PA 

To  help  you  use  Spanish  Vocabulary 
Quiz,  one  of  this  issue's  type-in  pro- 
grams, see  page  G-25,  we  have 
included  ten  vocabulary  files,  con- 
taining dozens  of  English  words  and 
their  Spanish  equivalents.  Load  and 
use  any  of  these  files  from  the 
program's  main  menu. 


37 


MLX 


Machine  Language  Entry  Program  for  Commodore  64 
Ottis  R.  Cowper 


Type  in  and  save  some  copies  of 
MLX — you'll  want  lo  use  it  to  enter  fu- 
ture ML  programs  from  Gazette.  When 
you're  ready  to  enter  an  ML  program, 
load  and  run  MLX.  It  asks  you  for  a  start- 
ing address  and  an  ending  address. 
Tfiese  addresses  appear  in  tfie  article 
accompanying  thie  MLX-tormal  pro- 
gram listing  you're  typing. 

If  you're  unfamiliar  with  machine  lan- 
guage, the  addresses  (and  all  other  val- 
ues you  enter  in  MLX)  may  appear 
strange.  Instead  of  the  usual  decimal 
numbers  you're  accustomed  to.  these 
numbers  are  in  hexadecimal^a  base 
16  numbering  system  commonly  used 
by  ML  programmers.  Hexadecimal — 
hex  for  short— includes  the  numerals  0- 
9  and  the  letters  A-F,  But  even  if  you 
know  nothing  about  ML  or  hex,  you 
should  have  no  trouble  using  MLX. 

Affer  you've  entered  the  starting  and 
ending  addresses,  you'll  be  offered  the 
option  of  clearing  the  w/orkspace. 
Choose  this  option  if  you're  starting  to 
enter  a  new  listing.  If  you're  continuing 
a  listing  that's  partially  typed  from  a  pre- 
vious session,  don't  choose  this  option. 
A  functions  menu  w\\\  appear.  The  first 
option  in  the  menu  is  Enter  Data.  If 
you're  just  starting  to  type  in  a  pro- 
gram, pick  this.  Press  tfie  E  key  and 
type  the  first  number  in  the  first  line  of 
the  program  listing.  If  you've  already 
typed  in  part  of  a  program,  type  the 
line  number  where  you  stopped  typing 
at  the  end  of  the  previous  session  (be 
sure  to  load  the  partially  completed  pro- 
gram before  you  resume  entry).  In  any 
case,  make  sure  the  address  you  en- 
ter corresponds  to  the  address  of  a 
line  in  the  listing  you  are  entering.  Oth- 
erwise, you'll  be  unable  to  enter  the  da- 
ta correctly.  If  you  pressed  E  by  mis- 
take, you  can  return  to  the  command 
menu  by  pressing  Return  alone  when 
asked  for  the  address.  (You  can  get 
back  to  the  menu  from  most  options  in 
the  program  by  pressing  Return  with 
no  other  input.) 

Entering  a  Listing 

Once  you're  in  Enter  mode,  MLX 
prints  the  address  for  each  program 
line  for  you.  You  then  type  in  all  nine 
numbers  on  that  line,  beginning  with 
the  first  two-digit  number  after  the  co- 
lon (:).  Each  line  represents  eight  data 
bytes  and  a  checksum.  Although  an 

G-38        COMPUTE 


/MLX-format  listing  appears  similar  to 
the  "hex  dump"  listings  from  a  ma- 
chine language  monitor  program,  the 
extra  checksum  number  on  the  end  al- 
lows MLX  to  check  your  typing. 

When  you  enter  a  line,  MLX  recalcu- 
lates the  checksum  from  the  eight 
bytes  and  the  address  and  compares 
this  value  to  the  number  from  the  ninth 
column.  If  the  values  match,  you'll 
hear  a  bel!  tone,  the  data  will  be  add- 
ed to  the  workspace  area,  and  the 
prompt  for  the  next  line  of  data  will  ap- 
pear. But  if  /WLX  detects  a  typing  error, 
you'll  hear  a  low  buzz  and  see  an  er- 
ror message.  The  line  will  then  be  re- 
displayed for  editing. 

Invalid  Characters  Banned 

Only  a  few  keys  are  active  while  you're 
entering  data,  so  you  may  have  to  un- 
learn some  habits.  You  do  not  type 
spaces  between  the  columns;  /WLX  au- 
tomatically inserts  these  for  you.  You 
do  not  press  Return  after  typing  the 
last  number  in  a  line;  MLY  automatical- 
ly enters  and  checks  the  line  after  you 
type  the  last  digit. 


64  MLX  Keypod 


7 

8 

9 

0 

-1 
U 

5 

1 

6 
0 

F 
P 

1 
J 

2 
K 

3 
L 

E 

A 
M 

B 

C 

D 

/ 

4 

0 
Space 

Only  the  numerals  0-9  and  the  let- 
ters A-F  can  be  entered.  If  you  press 
any  other  key  (with  some  exceptions 
noted  below),  you'll  hear  a  warning 
buzz.  To  simplify  typing,  a  numeric  key- 
pad function  is  included.  The  keypad 
is  active  only  while  entering  data.  Ad- 
dresses must  be  entered  with  the  nor- 
mal letter  and  number  keys.  The  figure 
below  shows  the  keypad  configuration. 
MLX  checks  for  transposed  charac- 


ters. If  you're  supposed  to  type  in  AO 
and  instead  enter  OA,  MLX  will  catch 
your  mistake.  There  is  one  error  that 
can  slip  past  MLX:  Because  of  the 
checksum  formula  used,  MLX  won't  no- 
tice if  you  accidentally  type  FF  in 
place  of  00,  and  vice  versa.  And 
there's  a  very  slim  chance  that  you 
could  garble  a  line  and  still  end  up 
with  a  combination  of  characters  that 
adds  up  to  the  proper  checksum.  How- 
ever. tfie.se  mistakes  should  not  occur 
if  you  take  care  while  entering  data. 

Editing  Feotures 

To  correct  typing  mistakes  before  fin- 
ishing a  line,  use  the  tnst/Del  key  to  de- 
lete the  character  to  the  left  of  the  cur- 
sor. If  you  mess  up  a  line  badly,  press 
Ctr/Home  to  start  the  line  over.  The  Re- 
turn key  is  also  active,  but  only  before 
any  data  is  typed  on  a  line.  Pressing  Re- 
turn at  this  point  returns  you  to  the  com- 
mand menu.  After  you  type  a  charac- 
ter, MLX  disables  Return  until  the  cur- 
sor returns  to  the  start  of  a  line.  Remem- 
ber, press  CIr/Home  to  quickly  get  to  a 
line-number  prompt.  To  make  correc- 
tions in  a  line  that  MLX  has  redisplayed 
for  editing,  compare  the  line  on  the 
screen  with  the  one  printed  in  the  list- 
ing and  then  move  the  cursor  to  the  mis- 
take and  type  the  correct  key.  The  cur- 
sor-left and  -right  keys  provide  the  nor- 
mal cursor  controls.  (The  Inst/Del  key 
now  works  as  an  alternative  cursor-left 
key.)  You  cannot  move  left  beyond  the 
first  character  in  the  line.  If  you  try  to 
move  beyond  the  rightmost  character, 
you'll  reenter  the  line.  During  editing,  Re- 
turn is  active;  pressing  it  tells  MLX  to  re- 
check  the  line.  You  can  press  the  CIr/ 
Home  key  to  clear  the  entire  line  if  you 
want  to  start  from  scratch  or  if  you 
want  to  get  to  a  iine-number  prompt  to 
use  Return  to  get  back  to  the  menu. 

Display  Data 

The  second  menu  choice,  Display  Da- 
ta, examines  memory  and  shows  the 
contents  in  the  same  format  as  the  pro- 
gram listing  (including  the  checksum). 
When  you  press  D,  MLX  asks  you  for  a 
starting  address.  Be  sure  that  the  start- 
ing address  you  give  corresponds  to  a 
line  number  in  the  listing.  Otherwise, 
the  checksum  display  will  be  meaning- 
less. MLX  displays  program  lines  until 
it  reaches  the  end  of  the  program,  at 


which  point  tine  menu  is  redisplayed, 
You  can  pause  the  display  by  pressing 
the  space  bar.  {MLX  finishes  printing 
the  current  line  before  halting.)  Press 
the  space  bar  again  to  restart  the  dis- 
play. To  break  out  of  the  display  and 
get  back  to  the  menu  before  the  end- 
ing address  is  reached,  press  Return. 

Other  Menu  Options 

Two  more  menu  selections  let  you 
save  programs  and  load  them  back  in- 
to the  computer.  These  are  Save  File 
and  Load  File.  When  you  press  S  or  L, 
MLX  asks  you  for  the  filename.  You'll 
then  be  asked  to  press  either  D  or  T  to 
select  disk  or  tape. 

You'll  notice  the  disk  drive  starting 
and  stopping  several  times  during  a 
load  or  save,  This  is  normal  behavior. 
MLX  opens  and  reads  from  or  writes  to 
the  file  instead  of  using  the  usual 
LOAD  and  SAVE  commands.  Also 
note  that  the  drive  prefix  0:  is  added  to 
the  filename  (tine  750),  so  this  should 
not  be  included  when  entering  the 
name.  This  also  precludes  the  use  of 
@  for  save-with-replace,  so  be  sure  to 
give  each  version  saved  a  different 
name. 

Remember  that  MLX  saves  the  en- 
tire workspace  area  from  the  starting  ad- 
dress to  the  ending  address,  so  the 
save  or  load  may  take  longer  than  you 
might  expect  if  you've  entered  only  a 
small  amount  of  data  from  a  long  list- 
ing. When  you're  saving  a  partially  com- 
pleted listing,  make  sure  to  note  the  ad- 
dress where  you  stopped  typing, 

/WLX  reports  the  standard  disk  or 
tape  error  messages  if  any  problems 
are  detected  dunng  the  save  or  load. 
It  also  has  three  special  load  error  mes- 
sages: INCORRECT  STARTING  AD- 
DRESS, which  means  the  file  you're  try- 
ing to  load  does  not  have  the  starting 
address  you  specified  when  you  ran 
MLX:  LOAD  ENDED  AT  address. 
which  means  the  file  you're  trying  to 
load  ends  before  the  ending  address 
you  specified  when  you  started  MLX: 
and  TRUNCATED  AT  ENDING  AD- 
DRESS, which  means  the  file  you're  try- 
ing to  load  extends  beyond  the  ending 
address  you  specified  when  you  start- 
ed MLX.  If  you  see  one  of  these  mes- 
sages and  feel  certain  that  you've  load- 
ed the  right  file,  exit  and  rerun  MLX.  be- 
ing  careful  to  enter  the  correct  starting 


and  ending  addresses. 

The  Quit  menu  option  has  the  obvi- 
ous effect— it  stops  MLX  and  enters  BA- 
SIC. The  Run/Stop  key  is  disabled,  so 
the  Q  option  lets  you  exit  the  program 
without  turning  off  the  computer.  (Of 
course,  Run/Stop-Restore  also  gets 
you  out,)  You'll  be  asked  for  verifica- 
tion; press  Y  to  exit  to  BASIC,  or  press 
any  other  key  to  return  to  the  menu.  Af- 
ter quitting,  you  can  type  RUN  again 
and  reenter  /WLY  without  losing  your  da- 
ta, as  long  as  you  don't  use  the  Clear 
Workspace  option. 

The  Finished  Product 

When  you've  finished  typing  all  the  da- 
ta for  an  ML  program  and  saved  your 
work,  you're  ready  for  the  results.  Re- 
fer to  the  corresponding  article  for 
details  on  loading  and  running  the 
program. 

An  Ounce  of  Prevention 

Don't  take  chances — use  The  Automat- 
ic Proofreader  to  type  the  new  MLX, 
and  then  test  your  copy  thoroughly  be- 
fore first  using  it  to  enter  any  significant 
amount  of  data,  fvlake  sure  all  the 
menu  options  work  as  they  should.  En- 
ter fragments  of  the  program  starting  at 
several  different  addresses;  then  use 
the  display  option  to  verify  that  the  da- 
ta has  been  entered  correctly.  Test  the 
save  and  load  options  to  ensure  that 
you  can  recall  your  work  from  disk. 


64  MLX 

SS  10  REM  VERSION 
30,950  MODIF 
85-487  ADDED 
EK  100  POKE  56,50: 

I,J,A,B,A$, 
DM  110  C4=48:C6=16 

4=254:25=25 

127 
CJ  120  FA=PEEK{45 

:BS=PEEK(55 

) :H$="01234 
SB  130  R$=CHRS(13) 

:S$="  ":D$= 

CHRS(0) :T$= 
CQ  140  SD=54272:F0 

+23:P0KE  I, 

( SPACE )SD+2 

8,52 
FC  150  PRINT"{CLR} 

R5 (8) :POKE 

E  53281,15 
EJ  160  PRINT  T$"  { 

{2  SPACESX 


1.1:  LINES  8 
lED,  LINES  4 

CLR:DIM  IN$, 
BS,A(7) ,N$ 
:C7=7:Z2=2:Z 
5:Z6=256:Z7= 

+Z6*PEEK(46) 
) +Z6*PEEK(56 
56789ABCDEF" 
:L5="{LEFT}" 
CHR$(20) :ZS= 
{13  RIGHT}" 
R  I=SD  TO  SD 
0: NEXT: POKE 
4,15:P0KE  78 

"CHR${142)CH 

53280, 15:P0K 

RED} {RVS} 
8  @} 


{2    SPRCES}"SPC{28)" 

{2  SPACES} fOFF} (BLU}  ML 

X  II  {REDHRVS} 

{2  SPACES }"SPC( 28 ) " 

(12  SPACES} !BLU}" 

FR  170  PRINT"{3  DOWN} 

{3  SPACES}COHPUTE! 'S  MA 
CHINE  LANGUAGE  EDITOR 
(3  DOWN}" 

JB  180  PRINT"(BLK)STARTING  ADD 
RESS't4J";  :GOSUB300:SA  =  A 
D:GOSUB1040:IF  F  THENlS 
0 

GF  190  PRINT"(BLK) {2  SPACES}EN 
DING  ADDRESS{4J'';  :GOS[JB 
30  0;EA=AD:GOSUB1030:IF 
{SPACE}F  THEN190 

KR  200  INPUT" (3  DOWN} {BLK}CLEA 
R  WORKSPACE  (Y/N]<4>";A 
$:IF  LEFTS(A$,1) <>"Y"TH 
EN220 

PG  210  PRINT"{2  DOWN} {BLU}W0RK 
ING. . ."; :FORI=BS  TO  BS+ 
EA-SA+7:P0KE  1,0: NEXT:? 
R I NT "DONE" 

OR  220  PRINTTAB{10) "{2  DOWN} 
{BLK}{RVS}  MLX  COMMAND 
{SPACE}MENU  {D0WN}<4}": 
PRINT  T$"{RVS}E{OFF}NTE 
R  DATA" 

BD  230  PRINT  T$"CRVS}D{0FF}ISP 

lay  data": print  t?" 
{rvs}l{off)oad  file" 

JS  240  PRINT  TS"{RVS}S{0FF}AVE 
FILE":PRINT  TS"{RVS}Q 

{0FF}UIT{2  D0WN){BLK}" 
JH  250  GET  AS: IF  A5=NS  THEN250 
HK  260  A=0:FOR  1=1  TO  5: IF  A$= 

MIDS ("EDLSQ",I,1)THEN  A 

=1:1=5 
FD    270    NEXT:ON    A    GOTO420, 610 , 6 

90,700,2B0:GOSUB1060:GO 

TO250 
EJ    280    PRINT"{RVS}    quit    ":INPU 

T"{D0WN}{4}ARE    YOU    SURE 
[Y/N]";AS:IF    LEFTS(A$, 

1)<>"Y"THEN220 
EH    290    POKE    SD+24,3:END 
JX    300    IN$-NS:AD='0:  INPUTINS:  IF 

LEN  (INS)  04THENRETUBN 
KF    310    B$=IN$:GOSUB320:AO=A:BS 

=M IDS (INS, 3) :GOSUB320:A 

D=AD*256+A:RETURN 
PP    320    A=0:FOR    J=1    TO    2:A5=MID 

$ (BS, J,l) :B=ASC (A$) -C4+ 

(AS>"@")*C7:A=A*C6+B 
JA  330  IF  B<0  OR  B>15  THEN  AD= 

0:A=-1:J=2 
GX  340  NEXT: RETURN 
CH  350  B=INT CA/C6) : PRINT  MID$( 

HS,B+1,1) ; :B=A-B*C6:Pai 

NT  HIDS (HS,B+1,1) ; :RETU 

RN 
RR  360  A=INT(AD/Z6) :GOSUB350:A 

=AD-A*Z6:GOSUB350: PRINT 

II   #    l(   ■ 

•  / 

BE     370    CK=INT (AD/Z6) :CK=AD-Z4* 

G-39 


m 


CK+Z5*(CK>Z7) :GOTO390 
PX  380  CK=CK*Z2+Z5* (CK>Z7)+A 
JC  390  CK=CK+Z5*(CK>Z5) tRETURN 
QS  400  PRINT"{DOWN)STARTING  AT 

{4J"; :GOSUB300:IF  IH5<> 

MS  THEN  GOSUB1030:IF  F 

{SPACE}THEN40a 
EX  410  RETURN 
HD  420  PRINT"{RVS)  ENTER  DATA 

{SPACE)":GOSUB400:IF  IN 

$=N$  THEN220 
JK  430  OPEN3,3:PRINT 
SK  440  POKE198,a:GOSUB360:IF  F 
THEN  PRINT  INS: PRINT" 

{0P}{5  RIGHT}"; 
GC  450  FOR  1=0  TO  24  STEP  3:B$ 

=S$:FOR  J=l  TO  2:IF  F  T 

HEN  BS=MIDS (INS, I+J,l) 
HA  460  PRINT"{RVS}"B5LS;:IF  I< 

24THEN  PRINT"{OFF)"; 
HD  470  GET  A$:IF  A$=NS  THEN470 
FK  480  IF{A$>"/"ANDAS<":")0R(A 

5>"@"ANDAS<"G")THEN540 
GS  485  A=-(AS="«")-2*(AS=",")- 

3*(AS=".")-4*(A$="/")-5 

*{A$="J")-6*{AS="K") 
FX  486  A=A-7*(A?="L")-8*(AS=": 

")-9* (AS="U")~10*(AS="I 

■M-11*(A$  =  "0")-12*(A$  =  " 

P") 
CM  4B7  A=A-13*(AS=SS) JIF  A  THE 

N  A$=HIDS{"ABCD123E456F 

0",A,1) :GOT0  54  0 
HP  490  IF  AS'RS  AND( (I=0)AND (J 

=1)0R  F)THEN  PRINT  B$;: 

j= 2: NEXT: 1  =  24: GOTO  550 
KC  500  IF  A$-"|HOME}"  THEN  PRI 

NT  BS:J=2:NEXT:I=24:HEX 

T:F=0:GOTO440 
MX  510  IF(A5="{RIGHT3")ANDF  TH 

ENPRINT  B$L$; :GOTO540 
GK  520  IF  ASOLS  AND  ASODS  OR 

( (1=0) AND (J=1))THEN  COS 

UB1060:GOTO470 
KG    530    AS  =  I-S+SS  +  L$:PRINT    B$L5; 

:J=2-J:IF    J    THEN    PRINT 

{SPACE}LS; :I=I-3 
QS  540  PRINT  AS;:NEXT  J:PRINT 

{SPACE}SS; 
PM  550  NEXT  I:PRINT:PRINT"{UP) 

{5  RIGHT}"; :INPUT#3,IN$ 

:IF  INS=NS  THEN  CL0SE3: 

GOTO220 
QC    560  FOR  1=1  TO  25  STEP3:B5= 

MID$ tIN$,I) :GOSUB320:IF 
K25  THEN  GOSUB380:A(I 

/3)=A 
PK  579  NEXT:  IF  AOCK  THEN  GOSU 

B1060: PRINT "{BLK}{EVS} 

(SPACE}ERROR:  REENTER  L 

INE  {4}":F=1:GOTO440 
HJ  580  GOSUB1080:B=BS+AD-SA:FO 

R  1=0  TO  7:P0KE  B+I,A(I 

)  :NEXT 
QQ  590  AD=AD+8:IF  AD>EA  THEN  C 

L0SE3: PRINT" (DOWN} {BLU} 

**  END  OF  ENTRY  **{BLK} 

[2    DOWN}":GOTO700 

G-40   COMPUTE 


GQ  600  F=0:GOTO440 

QA  610  PRINT"{CLR} {DOWN} {RVS} 
{SPACEJDISPLAY  DATA  ";G 
OSUB400:IF  IN$=NS  THEN2 
20 

rj  620  print"{down} {blu}press: 
(rvs}space{off3  to  pad 
SE,  {rvs}return[off}  to 
break{4Hdown}" 

KS  630  GOSUB360:B=BS+AD-SA:FOR 
I=BT0  B+7:A=PEEK(I) :G0S 
UB350;GOSOB380:PRINT  SS 


NEXT : PRI NT " { RVS } " ; : A=CK 
:GOSUB350:PRINT 
F=1:AD=AD+8:IF  AD>EA  TH 
ENPRINT"{DOWN} {BLU}**  E 
ND  OF  DATA  **":GOTO220 
GET  AS: IF  AS=RS  THEN  GO 
SUB1080:GOTO220 
IF  AS=SS  THEN  F=F+1:G0S 
UB1080 

ONFGOTO630,660,630 
PRINT"{DOWN} {RVS}  LOAD 
{SPACE}DATA  ":0P=1:G0T0 
710 

PRINT"{D0WN}{RVS}  SAVE 
{SPACE}FILE  ":OP=0 
IN$=NS: INPUT" {DOWN} FILE 
NAME<4)-";IN5:1F  IN$  =  N$ 
{SPACE}THEN220 
F=0:PRINT"{DOWN}{BLK} 
{RVS}T(0FF}APE  OR  {RVS} 
0{OFF}ISK:  {4}"; 
GET  AS: IF  A$="T"THEN  PR 
INT"T{DOWN}":GOTO8  8  0 
IF  A$<>"D"THEN730 
PRINT"D{DOWN}":OPEN15,8 
,15,"I0:":B=EA-SA: INS=" 
0:"+IN$:IF  OP  THEN810 
OPEN  1,8,8,INS+",P,W":G 
OSUB860:IF  A  THEN220 
AH=INT (SA/2S6) :AL=SA-(A 
H*256) :PRIST#1,CHR${AL) 
;CHRS(AH) ; 

FOR  1=0  TO  B:PRINT#1,CH 
R$ (PEEK(BS+I) ) ; : IF  ST  T 
HEN800 

NEXT :CL0SEl:CL0SE15: GOT 
0940 

GOSUB1060: PRINT" {DOWN} 
£BLK}ERR0R    DURING    SAVE: 
{4}":GOSUB860:GOTO220 
OPEN    1,8,8,INS+",P,R":G 
OSUB860;IF    A    THEN220 
GET#1,AS,B$:AD=ASC(AS+Z 
S)+256*ASC(B$+Z$) : IF    AD 
OSA    THEN    F  =  1:GOTO850 
FOR    1=0    TO    B:GETtl,AS:P 
OKE    BS+I,ASC (AS+ZS) :IF( 
I<>B)AND    ST    THEN    F=2:AD 
=I:I=B 

NEXT:IF  ST064  THEN  F  =  3 
CL0SE1:CL0SE15:0N  ABS(F 
>0)+l  GOTO960,970 
INPUT#15,A,A$:IF  A  THEN 
CLOSE 1;CL0SE 15 :GOSUB10 
60: PRI NT" {RVS} ERROR:     "A 


cc 

640 

KH 

650 

KC 

660 

EQ 

670 

AD 

680 

CM 

690 

PC 

700 

RX 

710 

PR 

720 

FP 

730 

HQ 

740 

HH 

750 

SQ 

760 

FJ 

770 

PE  780 

FC  790 

GS  800 

MA  810 

GE  820 

RX  83  0 


FA    840 
FQ    850 

SA    860 


GQ    870    RETURN 

EJ    880    POKEl83,PEEK(FA+2) :POKE 
137,PEEK(FA+3) :P0KE188, 
PEEK (FA+4) : IFOP=0THEN92 
0 
HJ    890    SYS    63466:IF(PEEK(733)A 
ND1)THEN    GOSUB1060:PRIN 
T" {DOWN} {RVS}    FILE    NOT 
{SPACE} FOUND    ":GOTO690 
CS    900    AD=PEEK(829)+256*PEEK(8 
30):IF    ADOSA    THEN    F  =  l: 
GOTO970 
SC    910    A=PEEK(831)+256*PEEK{a3 
2)-l:P=F-2* (A<EA)-3*(A> 
EA) :AD=A-AD:GOTO930 
KH    920    A=SA:B=EA+1:GOSUB1010:P 

OKE780,3:SYS  63338 
JF  930  A=BS:B=BS+(EA-SA)+1:G0S 
UB1010:ON  OP  GOTO950:SY 
S  63591 
AE  940  GOSUB1080:PRINT"{BLU}** 
SAVE  COMPLETED  **":GOT 
0220 
XP  950  POKE147,0:SYS  63562:IF 

{SPRCE}ST>0  THEN970 
FR  960  GOSUB10B0:PRINT"{BLU}** 
LOAD  COHPLETED  **":GOT 
0220 
DP  970  GOSUB1060:PRINT"{BLK} 

{RVS) ERROR  DURING  LOAD: 
{D0WN}<4>":0N  F  GOSUB98 
0,990,1000:GOTO220 
PP  980  PRINT" INCORRECT  STARTIN 
G  ADDRESS  { " ; : GOSUB360 : 
PRINT") ": RETURN 
GR  990  PRINT"LOAD  ENDED  AT  ";: 
AD=SA+AD: GOSUB360 : PRINT 
D$: RETURN 
FD  1000  PRINT"TRUNCATED  AT  END 

ING  ADDRESS": RETURN 
RX  1010  AH=INT (A/256) :AL=A- (AH 
*256) :P0KE193,AL:P0KE1 
94, AH 
FF  1020  AH=INT (B/256) :AL=B-(AH 
*256) :POKE174,AL:POKEl 
75,AH:RETURN 
FX  1030  IF  AD<SA  OR  AD>EA  THEN 

1050 
CR  1040  IF  (AD>511  AND  AD<6528 
0)  THEN  GOSUB1080:  F=0 
:  RETURN 
HC  1050  GOSUB1060;PRINT"{RVS5 
{SPACE}INVALID  ADDRESS 
(DOWS} {BLK} " :F=1 : RETU 
RN 
AR  1060  POKE  SD+5,31:P0KE  SD+6 
,208:POKE  SD,240:POKE 
{SPACE}SD+1,4:P0KE  SD+ 
4,33 
DX  1070  FOR  S=l  TO  100:NEXT:GO 

TO1090 
PF  1080  POKE  SD+5,8:POKE  SD+6 , 
240:POKE  SD,0:POKE  SD+ 
1,90:POKE  SD+4,17 
AC  1090  FOR  S=l  TO  100: NEXT: PO 
KE  SD+4,0iPOKE  SD,0:PO 
KE    SD+I,0:RETURN  -J 


REVIEWS 


Take  a  sneak  peek  at  what's  up  in  The  Treehouse,  gel  the  jump  on 
Reader  Rabbit  II,  and  peruse  in-depth  reviews  of  many  more. 


THE  TREEHOUSE 

Once  your  child  encounters 
The  Treehouse,  Brederbund 
Software's  excellent  follow- 
up  to  the  award-winning  Play- 
room, the  fun  and  learning 
start  right  away.  An  interac- 
tive chalkboard  boasts  six- 
color  click-and-drag  drawing 
capability.  A  small  clock 
tells  time.  But  besides  these 
surprises,  you  get  four  de- 
tailed games. 

Unlike  anything  else  for 
kids,  Tree/iouse's  music  syn- 
thesizer screen  displays  an 
orchestra  pit  with  illustrations 
and  simple  descriptions  of 
the  instruments.  The  pro- 
gram also  plays  a  sample 
note  from  each  instrument. 
But  this  is  no  simple  play- 
back machine.  It's  truly  inter- 
active and  inspired.  Children 
can  store  songs  in  a  song- 
book  and  print  them  out, 
look  at  a  few  notes,  or  read 
two  lines  of  music.  They  can 
choose  which  instrunnent  will 
play  their  music,  with  such  ex- 
otic choices  as  bottles  and  ka- 
zoos. Best  of  all,  children 
can  write  music  by  selecting 
note  and  rest  length  and 
then  clicking  on  a  piano  key- 
In  addition.  Treehouse  in- 
cludes a  very  clever  music 
maze  game  that  plays  sim- 
ple musical  phrases  (two  or 
three  notes)  and  then  re- 
quires you  to  pick  the  correct 
one  out  of  four  options.  A  cor- 
rect choice  earns  a  note, 
and  completion  of  the  maze 
is  rewarded  with  a  song. 

Another  Treehouse  game 
teaches  counting,  with 
chips  or  cash  as  options. 
The  third  part  consists  of  an 
animal  guessing  game, 
which  teaches  deductive  rea- 
soning, and  an  animated  pup- 
pet theater  that  encourages 
storytelling.  All  of  the  games 
boast  excellent  graphics 
and  sound-  The  synthesized 
music  especially  is  very  true 
to  life,  provided  you  have  an 


Ad  Lib  or  Sound  Blaster 
card. 

The  Treehouse  should  be 
on  store  shelves  by  early  au- 
tumn. Get  your  copy  before 
the  leaves  begin  to  falL 

BETH  ANN  MUflRAY 


READER  RABBIT  [l 

This  excellent  successor  to 
Reader  Rabbit  combines 
whimsy  and  word  skills  in 
just  the  right  measure  to 
keep  your  child  interested 


imSBMM"'*^ 


Give  your  child  an  educational  boost  with  an  entertaining  visit  to 
this  arboreal  playroom. 


Reader  Rabbit  II  playfully  teaches  youngsters  word  association. 


Scheduled  Release:  Oclober  1991 
IBM  PC  and  compatibles.  512K  RAM 
for  C(3A,  64QK  lor  VGA;  hard  drive  op- 
tional, supports  mouse,  supports  Ad 
Lib,  Sound  Blaster,  Sound  Master, 
and  Tandy  3-voice  sound— $59.95 

BR0DERBUND  SOFTWARE 
17  Paul  Dr. 

San  Rafael,  CA  94903-2101 
(415)  492-3500 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  350 


and  learning.  The  entire 
game  has  fantastic  graphics 
appeal,  and  its  fanciful  de- 
meanor hides,  but  doesn't  de- 
tract from,  its  educational  con- 
tent. 

Reader  Rabbit  It  consists 
of  four  games,  all  designed 
for  early  readers.  The  first, 
Word  Mine,  teaches  the  for- 
mation of  compound  words 


and  words  that  begin  or  end 
with  two-letter  blends  (like 
match).  Help  your  bunny  pat 
and  his  mole  miner  friends 
put  together  words  and  fill  a 
rail  car  with  word  crystals. 
Youngsters  will  enjoy  the  re- 
wards of  collecting  the  crys- 
tals, and  they  will  begin  to  rec- 
ognize the  relationships  that 
lead  to  a  more  complex  vo- 
cabulary- 

A  second  game.  Vowel 
Pond,  teaches  long  and 
short  vowel  sounds  in  the 
guise  of  a  happy  fishing  trip. 
Help  Reader  Rabbit  net  a 
day's  catch  by  identifying 
words  that  match  a  particu- 
lar vowel  sound.  For  extra  as- 
sistance, children  will  also 
see  a  word  that  matches  the 
appropriate  vowel  sound. 
For  instance,  if  they  are  look- 
ing for  words  that  contain  a 
short  u,  they'll  see  the  word 
stuff.  As  a  parade  of  fish 
swim  by,  the  player  must  se- 
lect the  ones  that  carry  the  ap- 
propriate-sounding words  em- 
blazoned on  their  sides. 
Pick  the  correct  fish,  and  it 
goes  into  the  net;  pick  the 
wrong  fish,  and  it's  the  one 
that  gets  away. 

Another  word  sound 
game.  Match  Patch,  asks 
kids  to  identify  word  patterns 
and  associations.  These  in- 
clude simple  rhymes  among 
words  that  share  the  same  let- 
ters (like  pat  and  fat),  word 
opposites  (like  find  and 
lose),  homonyms  (like  to  and 
too),  and  harder  rhymes 
among  words  that  share  the 
same  sound  but  not  the 
same  letters  (like  time  and 
rhyme).  Each  of  these  levels 
draws  upon  different  vocab- 
ulary and  pattern  recognition 
skills. 

Rounding  out  this  rollick- 
ing rabbity  foursome  is  Alpha- 
bet Dance,  which  teaches 
word  order.  This  is  an  essen- 
tial skill  necessary  for  sorting 
and  for  working  with  alphabet- 
ized lists  and  references  like 
113 


REVIEWS 


dictionaries.  Tiie  game 
takes  place  at  a  barn  dance. 
Tlie  object  is  to  line  up.  the 
dancing  partners  as  direct- 
ed. Start  out  witin  simple  first- 
letter  ordering  among  words 
that  directly  follow  one  anoth- 
er {like  Frank,  Gertrude.  Har- 
vey, and  Ismelda).  and 
move  on  to  harder  groups 
that  don't  follow  in  direct  se- 
quence (like  Alfred.  Karen, 
Paul,  and  Yolanda).  For 
more  of  a  challenge,  kids 
can  order  names  according 
to  the  second  letter  in  the 
name,  and  by  the  first  and 
second  letters  in  the  name. 
Each  successive  level 
builds  upon  the  skill  learned 
from  the  level  before.  For  as- 
sistance, a  list  of  the  alpha- 
bet appears  at  the  top  of  the 
screen  disguised  as  a  ban- 
ner above  the  dance  floor. 

Aimed  at  a  slightly  older  au- 
dience  (from  five  to  eight 
years  of  age)  than  its  prede- 
cessor, Reader  Rabbit  II 
promises  to  be  as  much  a 
classic  as  the  original  Read- 
er Rabbit.  Even  in  this  video 
age,  word  skills  are  as  impor- 
tant as  ever.  Here's  a 
chance  to  give  your  kids  a 
head  start  or  to  reinforce 
what  they're  learning  in  the 
classroom. 

PETER  SCiSCO 


Scheduled  Release;  August  1991 
IBM  PC  and  compatibles.  512K  RAM 
{640K  required  for  Tandy  16-color 
graphics)— S59.95 

THE  LEARNING  COMPANY 
6493  Kaiser  Dr. 
Fremont,  CA  94555 
(BOO)  852-2255 

Circle  Reader  Servfce  Number  351 


HIJAAK 


Tame  the  Tower  of  Babel 
that  PC  graphics  formats 
have  become — that's  the 
goal  of  HiJaak,  an  all-pur- 
pose graphics-translation  pro- 
gram    and     unparalleled 

114        COMPUTE 


screen-capture  utility.  De- 
spite a  buggy  user  interface 
and  lack  of  a  screen-preview 
program,  its  reasonable 
price  and  encyclopedic  list 
of  both  raster  and  vector  for- 
mats make  it  a  formidable 
product. 

HiJaak's  installation  pro- 
gram is  a  little  terse,  with  no 
options  and  no  explanation 
of  its  functions.  It  doesn't  tell 


TSR  mode  requires  three  oth- 
er programs:  RPM.EXE, 
L0ADRPM.COM,  FREERPM 
.COM,  as  well  as  HiJaak  it- 
self. RPM  is  the  Resident 
Process  Manager,  which 
serves  as  a  sort  of  master 
menu  to  save  screens,  print 
them,  or  run  HiJaak. 
LOADRPM  turns  RPM  and  Hi- 
Jaak into  memory-resident 
programs.    FREERPM    re- 


Through  myriad  options.  HiJaak  renders  almost  a!!  graphics 
formats  accessible. 


you  that  an  installation  is  suc- 
cessful, and  it  doesn't  start  Hi- 
Jaak or  mention  that  you 
must  choose  a  configuration 
from  the  main  menu  the  first 
time  that  you  run  it  (although 
the  manual's  instructions 
make  this  very  clear).  The  pro- 
gram takes  up  about  1.5 
megs  of  disk  space  and  re- 
quires 320K  of  free  RAM,  or 
5K  of  RAM  if  run  in  TSR 
mode,  which  uses  the  hard 
disk  to  hold  the  foreground 
application  at  bay  temporar- 
ily. HiJaak  loses  no  features 
in  TSR  mode,  so  actually  on- 
ly 5K  of  RAM  is  needed  to 
run  it,  albeit  with  a  perform- 
ance penalty  exacted  in 
more  disk  accesses. 

HiJaak  can  be  run  com- 
pletely in  TSR  mode  and  is 
not  limited  to  the  screen-cap- 
ture utility  in  this  mode. 
That's  the  good  news.  The 
bad  news  is  that  running  in 


moves  everything  from  mem- 
ory. I'd  much  prefer  that  all 
of  these  functions  be  rolled 
into  HiJaak  itself.  And  I'm 
sure  inexperienced  users 
would  prefer  that  RPM  be  de- 
scribed in  better  detail;  the 
manual  gives  it  short  shrilt.  I 
had  many  more  problems 
with  RPM  than  with  other 
TSRs,  but  it  was  still  useful. 
I'm.  especially  fond  of  its  abil- 
ity to  save  the  state  of  HiJaak 
at  any  moment,  even  in  the 
middle  of  a  dialog;  I  never 
lost  my  place  when  I 
popped  back  from  the  fore- 
ground application 

Discussion  of  RPM  is 
about  the  only  thing  the  man- 
ual stints  on,  except  perhaps 
for  the  index  (for  example,  nei- 
ther Windows  nor  BMP 
could  be  found  there,  even 
though  the  program  sup- 
ports Windows  bitmap  files). 
Otherwise,  the  manual  is  a 


model  of  its  kind,  blessedly 
covering  even  the  most  chal- 
lenging topics  with  dogged 
thoroughness,  never  under- 
estimating the  reader's  expe- 
rience or  intelligence.  Two 
other  unusual  aspects  of  the 
manual  deserve  mention 
here.  An  initial  chapter  titled 
"Condensed  Instructions"  al- 
lows power  users  to  be  up 
and  running  quickly  and  com- 
pletely explains  the  support 
policy.  And  because  of  the 
wild  profusion  of  PC  graph- 
ics formats,  the  manual's 
more-the-merrier  approach 
is  welcome;  it  covers  every 
detail.  The  section  for  each 
graphics  format,  for  exam- 
ple, starts  with  a  box  giving 
the  address  of  the  organiza- 
tion that  developed  it  and  a 
Vital  Statistics  box  summariz- 
ing answers  to  the  most  fre- 
quently asked  questions 
about  the  format. 

HiJaak  stands  out  for 
both  its  wide  variety  of  sup- 
ported formats  and  its  world- 
class  screen-capture/print 
abilities.  If  you  need  to  pro- 
duce screen  shots  for  publi- 
cation or  in-house  documen- 
tation on  laser  printers,  Hi- 
Jaak is  the  way  to  go.  If  you 
need  support  for  literally  eve- 
ry popular  graphics  format 
used  on  the  PC,  HiJaak  will 
do  the  trick.  A  partial  list  of 
supported  formats  includes 
Amiga  IFF,  ASCII  text,  Au- 
toCAD DXF,  CompuServe 
GIF.  GEM  metafile  and  im- 
age files,  HPGL  plotter  files, 
Lotus  PIC,  MacPaint. 
MacDraw.  Windows  met- 
afiles, TIFF  WordPerfect, 
and  about  20  fax  formats.  Hi- 
Jaak oiiers  solid  support  for 
translating  a  large  number  of 
files  at  once.  Use  the  point- 
and-click  interface  to  queue 
up  several  files  chosen  from 
a  directory  list  (a  mouse  is  rea- 
sonably well  supported)  or 
run  HiJaak  from  the  com- 
mand line.  I  found  the  latter 
option  to  be  much  quicker 


•^^  ^yjNis 


'«4' 


l^V^ 


Congratulations  -  it's  1995  and  you've  been  selected  for  the  hottest  seat 
in  helicopter  history:  the  cockpit  of  the  Pentagon's  new  AH-73IVI  ^ 

Thunderhawk":  So  zip  up  your  flight  suit,  adjust  your  sunglasses,  and  1| 
control  your  nerves  'cause  this  one  makes  Nam  ^^^sdr 

look  like  a  day  at  the  beach!  AH-73I\/I  .mu-  ^  ""M^ 

Thunderhawk  is  the  most  advanced  ^"^ 

helicopter  combat  simulation  ^ 

ever  brought  to  ^      ^ 

the  computer 


A  vailable  soon  for  IBM  and  Amiga. 

Thunderhawk  is  a  trademark  of 

Virgin  Games,  Inc. 

Virgin  is  a  registered  trademark  of 

Virgin  Enterprises,  Ltd. 

©1991  Virgin  Games  and     -^"^ 

Core  Design.  All  rights  reserv 

Virgin  Games,  inc.  18061  Fitch  Ave. 

Irvine,  CA  82714  1(800|VRG-INO7 


mr 


e  Read«r  SenriM  Ni^ber  105 


■  A  helicopter  armed  with  ti, 
latest  in  weaponry,  .v 

|electronic  countermeasures, 
fuiictionjng  displays  and 
^^^t^puter-aided  targeting 
s,^^      systems. 

\    J  Realistic  missions  involving 
\      actual  military  conflicts  and 
\     contingency  plans. 

^  jpyfCirue  interactive  "world" 
^  outside  your  cockpit,  with 
.       other  locations  and 
^^characters  that  respond  to 
\    your  actions. 

\   □  Campaign  scenarios  with 
i;     a  multitude  of  missions. 


REVIEWS 


than  the  new  mousing  inter- 
face— the  command  line 
seemed  more  flexible.  Run- 
ning HiJaak  from  the  com- 
mand line  allows  you  to  cre- 
ate a  text  file  containing  exe- 
cution options,  but,  notably, 
neither  the  point-and-click 
method  nor  the  command 
line  method  lets  you  change 
settings  for  different  files  of 
the  same  type.  In  other 
words,  if  you  have  a  group  of 
DXF  files  you  want  to  convert 
to  CGM  format  and  you  want 
some  of  them  to  be  translat- 
ed with  gray  scaling,  others 
to  be  translated  using  full  col- 
ors, and  others  to  black-and- 
white  only,  you  must  run 
three  separate  batches.  (In- 
set promises  to  address  this 
shortcoming,  and  HUaak 
may  have  these  abilities  be- 
fore this  review  sees  print.) 
Oddly,  you  can't  see  any  of 
the  files  you  convert;  unlike 
ImPort  by  Zenographics,  Hi- 
Jaak offers  no  way  to  see  ei- 
ther the  input  or  the  output 
file  without  firing  up  a  graph- 
ics program  that  can  accept 
that  file  format. 

HiJaak  has  the  rare  ability 
to  convert  from  vector  files 
(such  as  those  produced  by 
CAD  and  draw  programs)  to 
raster  format,  although  not 
the  reverse  {by  nature,  raster- 
to-vector  conversions  are  ex- 
ceedingly tricky).  This 
means  you  can  effortlessly 
move,  say,  an  /AutoCAD or  Lo- 
tus 1-2-3  image  into  a  paint 
program,  such  as  the  Paint- 
brush program  that  comes 
with  Windows.  I  experienced 
no  problems  with  such  con- 
versions, although  I  suppose 
there  are  some  potentially 
nasty  problems  with  shaded 
or  3-D  AutoCAD  images. 

If  you're  among  the  grow- 
ing number  of  LaserJet  us- 
ers who  have  a  fax  card  in- 
stalled in  your  PC,  you'll  ap- 
preciate the  inclusion  of 
fonts  designed  for  just  this 
purpose.  You  can  mimic  or 

116        COMPUTE 


replace  the  basic  fonts  HP 
supplies  on  its  LaserJets, 
and  the  default  font  is  300 
dpi,  the  same  resolution  as 
that  of  HP  laser  printers.  Las- 
erJet users  will  also  appreci- 
ate its  brilliant  handling  of  Las- 
erJet soft  fonts.  You  can  con- 
vert HP  soft  fonts  into  a  for- 
mat usable  by  HiJaak  for  a 
perfect  rendering  of  the  im- 
age. I've  never  seen  this  abil- 
ity in  any  other  conversion 
program,  even  though  HP's 
font  format  is  well  known.  Hi- 
Jaak is  indispensable  for  the 
true  LaserJet  power  user. 

A  simple  Windows  cap- 
ture utility  lets  you  snag  Win- 
dows 3.0  images  in  HiJaak's, 
own  file  format,  which  can 
then  be  translated  into  any  of 
the  supported  output  for- 
mats. The  utility's  interface  is 
a  bit  confusing,  and  there's 
no  help  file,  but  the  manual 
explains  its  use  well.  To  acti- 
vate the  utility,  choose  its  In- 
stall item,  which  puts  up  a  di- 
alog box  explaining  what 
keys  to  press.  The  icon  then 
courteously  disappears  until 
you've  pressed  the  hot  keys 
to  capture  the  screen,  at 
which  time  the  capture  utility 
reappears  with  a  request  for 
a  filename.  That's  all  there  is 
to  it. 

However,  the  conversion 
process  terms  both  Win- 
dows and  OS/2  Presentation 
Manager  BMP  files  as  PM 
Bitmaps,  which  isn't  very 
clear.  You  must  choose  PM 
Bitmaps,  then  select  the  Win- 
dows option  to  get  Windows 
bitmap  files.  Another  side 
note  is  that  Microsoft  Paint- 
brush is  one  of  the  output  op- 
tions but  it  doesn't  work  for 
the  version  of  Paintbrush 
that  comes  with  Windows 
3.0.  Inset  plans  a  fix.  It 
doesn't  matter,  though,  be- 
cause the  Paintbrush  in  Win- 
dows 3.0  imports  PCX  files  di- 
rectly, and  HiJaak  performs 
flav/lessly  on  PCX  files. 

HiJaak  has  a  mountain  of 


options.  The  conversion  dia- 
logs hide  them  artfully,  and 
the  defaults  are  usually  well 
chosen,  so  you  may  never 
need  them.  Nonetheless,  eve- 
ry input  and  output  option 
comes  with  a  screenful  (or 
more)  of  options  whenever 
they're  necessary.  For  exam- 
ple, vector  file  formats  sel- 
dom have  consistent  han- 
dling of  fonts  and  typefaces, 
and  HiJaak  allows  you  to  re- 
map (change)  your  typefac- 
es. CGM  files,  for  example, 
contain  only  font  numbers. 
Since  one  person's  font  1 
might  be  a  Times  Roman 
while  another  person's 
might  be  a  Dingbat,  font  re- 
mapping can  prove  useful. 

Colors  are  another  source 
of  disparity.  HiJaak  not  only 
maps  color  schemes  to  your 
satisfaction,  but  it  also  has 
automatic  conversions  to 
black-and-white  or  gray 
scale — useful  shortcuts  for 
owners  of  fax  machines  or  la- 
ser printers. 

I  called  Inset's  tech  sup- 
port with  a  number  of  prob- 
lems and  was  dealt  with 
quickly  and  reasonably — 
even  on  f\/londay  morning,  a 
notoriously  difficult  lime  to 
reach  support  lines.  It's  a  toll- 
free  call,  and  Inset  charges 
nothing  for  its  support.  The 
manual  promises  that, 
should  you  call  while  all  tech- 
nicians are  busy,  at  least  one 
attempt  will  be  made  to  re- 
turn your  call  within  an  hour. 
At  least  three  attempts  to 
reach  you  will  be  made  with- 
in "a  reasonable  period,"  Fur- 
ther, a  ten-page  booklet  of  re- 
lease notes  details  shortcom- 
ings in  both  HiJaak  and  the 
products  it  supports.  This  in- 
cludes work-arounds  where 
the  other  product  is  at  fault 
and  common  pilot  errors 
with  CompuServe  GIF  files. 
This  all  amounts  to  the  best 
support  you  can  get  for 
$199.  I'm  very  impressed.  Hi- 
Jaak is  flawed,  but  neverthe- 


less a  major  achievement.  Its 
features  are  comprehensive, 
its  uses  myriad,  and  its  sup- 
port so  good  that  even  the 
worst  problems  I  encoun- 
tered had  a  satisfactory  work- 
around. That's  the  sign  of  a 
mature  and  well-developed 
product,  even  if  it  does  have 
a  few  minor  failings. 

TOM  CAMPBELL 

IBM  PC  and  compatibles;  480K  RAM: 
CGA,  EGA,  MCGA,  VGA,  or  Hercu- 
les; hard  drive~S199 

INSET  SYSTEMS 
71  Commerce  Dr. 
Brookfield,  CT  06804-3405 
(203)  740-2400  (U.S.) 
(800)  828-8088  (OUlside  U.S.) 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  352 

THE  SECRET  OF 
MONKEY  ISLAND 

Obviously,  The  Secret  of  Mon- 
key Island  was  designed  as 
much  for  fun  as  for  nail-biting 
adventure.  That  it  manages 
to  provide  a  healthy  amount 
of  both  is  testament  to  the  re- 
sounding success  of  its  de- 
sign. 

"We  believe  that  you  buy 
games  to  be  entertained,  not 
to  be  whacked  over  the 
head  every  time  you  make  a 
mistake,"  reads  the  manual 
to  Lucasfilm  Games'  The  Se- 
cret of  Monkey  Island.  "We 
think  you'd  prefer  to  solve 
the  game's  mysteries  by  ex- 
ploring and  discovering,  not 
by  dying  a  thousand 
deaths." 

They  got  that  right, 
Blessed  forgiveness  is  only 
one  of  several  virtues  that 
make  The  Secret  of  Monkey 
Island  such  a  thoroughly  de- 
lightful adventure  game.  It  los- 
es none  of  its  edge  in  excite- 
ment or  challenge  by  offer- 
ing multiple  chances  at  suc- 
cess, and  in  doing  so  it 
gains  a  friendly  accessibility 
that  keeps  it  from  becoming 
frustrating  and  irritating  the 


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REVIEWS 


way  other  adventure  games 
can  sometimes  be. 

The  game  begins  on  Me- 
lee Island,  where  amiable 
goof  Guybrush  Threepwood 
has  come  to  seek  his  fortune 
by  becoming  a  pirate.  The 
first  stop  is  the  Scumm  Bar, 
where  Threepwood  endures 
the  first  of  many  cracks 
about  his  silly  name  and 
learns  firsthand  from  three  im- 
portant-looking pirates  what 
he  must  do  to  begin  a  life  of 
robbing  and  pillaging.  In 
very  satisfying  detail,  the  ad- 
venture-game hero  gets  to 
dish  out  as  many  wisecracks 
as  he  takes.  "You're  a 
bunch  of  foul-smelling,  grog- 
swilling  pigs!"  Threepwood 
can  bark  at  his  pirate  men- 
tors. 

Initially,  Threepwood 
must  learn  about  and  com- 
plete a  series  of  tasks  de- 
signed to  acquaint  him  with 
pirating.  These  tasks  include 
sword  fighting  and  treasure 
hunting.  Ultimately,  he  must 
assemble  a  crew,  obtain  a 
ship,  and  embark  for  fvlon- 
key  Island  in  search  of  the  se- 
cret that  gives  the  game  its 
title.  Among  other  frightfui  en- 
counters, Threepwood  has 
to  outfight  Melee  Island's  hot- 
test sword  slinger,  outwit  a 
pack  of  frothing  piranha  poo- 
dles, and  navigate  a  dark, 
dangerous  forest. 

Controlled  by  arrow  keys, 
joystick,  or  mouse.  Threep- 
wood moves  briskly  through 
an  impressively  cinematic 
graphic  landscape.  Melee  Is- 
land's village  looks  cartoon- 
ishly  ominous  beneath  a  love- 
ly, star-strewn  sky,  with 
shady  pirates  and  their  pet 
rats  hanging  out  or  roaming 
the  streets.  Back  in  the  is- 
land's inner  recesses, 
there's  an  impressive  circus 
tent  glowing  with  inner  light 
and  a  dimly  lit  shipyard 
called  Stan's  Previously 
Used  Vessels.  Unexpected 
and     humorous     touches 

118        COMPUTE 


abound,  some  cornier  than 
others:  "If  there's  one  type  of 
piracy  I  don't  like,"  says  one 
character,  "it's  CONS-pira- 
cy!" 

The  Secret  of  Monkey  Is- 
land is  good  fun  and  may 
have  you  laughing  as  you 
study  to  become  a  high- 
seas  terror  so  hoist  the  main- 


essed  words  found  immedi- 
ate and  effective  applica- 
tions for  the  new  technology, 
composers  and  performers 
exploited  the  artistic  power 
of  the  new  machines  just  as 
quickly.  Amateurs,  too, 
found  that  these  electronic 
tools  offered  them  inexpen- 
sive ways  to  pursue  music 


Walk  to 

Open       Wall*  to     Use  {) 

Close  Pick!  up  Look  at 
Push  Talk  to  Turn  on 
Pull         Giye  Turn  off  n 


K.-r 


A  pirate's  life  means  more  than  grog  and  doubloons. 


sail  and  post  a  lookout.  For 
cutlass-swinging  adventure, 
Monl<ey  Island  is  somewhere 
on  your  horizon. 

EDDIE  HUFFMAN 

IBM  PC  and  compatibles.  640K  RAM. 
CGA,  EGA.  MCGA,  VGA;  hard  drive 
recommended,  joystick  and  mouse 
optional,  supports  Roland,  Ad  Lib. 
and  Sound  Blaster  sound  cards— 
$69.95  for  VGA.  $59.95  for  ottier  ver- 
sions 

LUCASFILM  GAMES 

Distributed  by  Electronic  Arts 

1820  Gateway  Dr. 

San  Mateo,  CA  94404-2499 

(415)571-7171 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  353 

PLAY  IT  BY  EAR 

Few  professions  have  em- 
braced the  arrival  of  the  per- 
sonal computer  as  eagerly 
and  as  creatively  as  musi- 
cians. While  people  who 
crunched  numbers  and  proc- 


as  a  hobby  or  to  prepare  for 
at  least  a  part-time  career. 

Three  features  of  person- 
al computers  make  them 
good  tools  for  musicians: 
their  sound  capabilities, 
their  connections  to  real  mu- 
sical instruments  through 
MIDI  interfaces,  and  their  un- 
limited patience.  A  human 
music  teacher  can  tire  quick- 
ly of  the  repetitive  drills  neces- 
sary to  train  a  musician  in 
some  of  the  more  ele- 
mentary aspects  of  composi- 
tion and  performance;  a  com- 
puter exists  to  serve  the  stu- 
dent. 

Ibis  Software's  Play  It  by 
Ear  is  an  effective  training 
tool  for  both  amateurs  and 
professionals  who  need  to  ei- 
ther develop  or  hone  their 
skills  in  ear  training.  The  in- 
cluded exercises  help  you 
recognize  and  play  back  mel- 
odies, chords,  scales,  and  in- 


tervals, using  graphic  repre- 
sentations of  either  a  piano 
keyboard  or  a  guitar.  You  se- 
lect the  desired  exercise,  lis- 
ten to  the  series  of  notes, 
and  play  them  back  using  ei- 
ther the  mouse  (no  option  for 
keyboard  control  is  availa- 
ble) or  an  actual  instrument 
(if  you're  connected  through 
a  MIDI  interface).  Or  you  can 
identify  the  chord  or  interval 
played  from  the  list  of  sever- 
al displayed. 

The  main  screen  is  divided 
into  several  different  work  ar- 
eas; pull-down  menus  pre- 
sent options  available  for 
choosing  the  desired  exer- 
cise, difficulty  level,  volume, 
duration  and  range  of  notes, 
and  type  of  scale  or  chord 
played.  Once  you've  chosen 
an  exercise  and  the  combi- 
nation of  musical  notes  to  be 
classified  or  repeated  has 
been  played,  you  can 
choose  to  hear  the  phrase 
again,  skip  over  it,  or  display 
the  correct  answer.  Good 
note/bad  note  icons  track 
your  correct  and  incorrect  an- 
swers as  you  go  along,  and 
progress  charts  can  be 
pulled  up  at  any  time  to 
show  how  you're  doing. 

Play  It  by  Ear's  user  inter- 
face is  sleek.  While  crowd- 
ed, the  main  working  screen 
isn't  difficult  to  navigate.  Min- 
imal written  documentation 
is  provided,  though  you  like- 
ly won't  need  it  if  you  just 
take  a  few  minutes  to  ex- 
plore the  menus  and  control 
settings. 

Ibis  recommends  a  MIDI  in- 
terface, but  if  you're  using 
the  program  strictly  for  ear 
training,  it's  unnecessary.  I 
tested  the  program  on  a 
bare-bones  XT  clone  with  no 
special  sound  capabilities, 
and  the  notes  were  clear 
and  recognizable. 

At  $99.95,  Play  It  by  Ear 
may  be  more  appealing  to 
the  aspiring  professional 
than  to  the  novice.  If  you 


want  a  simple  drill-and-prac- 
tice  program  that  helps  you 
recognize  and  play  back 
notes  on  a  guitar  or  piano, 
though,  Ear's  just  right.  For 
more  advanced  music  stu- 
dents who  want  to  train  their 
ears  to  discern  the  differ- 
ence between  varying  mode 
scales  (Dorian,  Phrygian, 
and  so  on)  or  to  be  able  to 
tell  what  interval  is  being 
played  in  a  chord  (triads, 
9ths,  llths),  Play  It  by  Ear  os- 
iers this  more  sophisticated 
capability  too. 

Serious  musicians  would 
most  likely  want  to  be  able  to 
use  the  program  by  connect- 
ing their  computers  to  an  ac- 
tual instrument  through  a 
MIDI  interface  or  to  at  least 
broaden  the  program's  use- 
fulness with  more  enhanced 
sound  capabilities.  For  peo- 
ple with  such  aspirations, 
this  program  facilitates  a  ba- 
sic element  of  music  educa- 
tion and  offers  a  bridge  to 
their  real-life  musical  tools, 

KATHY  YAKAL 


IBM  PC  and  compalibies.  64QK  RAM. 
CGA,  EGA.  or  VGA;  supports  Roland 
or  100-percent  compatibie  MPU-401 
MIDI  cards,  Ad  Lib,  Sound  Blaster— 
$99.95 

IBIS  SOFTWAFIE 

90  New  Montgomery  St.,  Ste.  20 

San  Francisco.  CA  94105 

(415)546-1917 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  354 


WORD  FOR 
WINDOWS 

Imagine  the  ultimate  word- 
processing  software.  It 
would  be  easy  to  use,  with  In- 
tuitive commands.  It  would 
be  so  powerful  that  you'd  nev- 
er run  up  against  a  wall  cre- 
ating a  complicated  docu- 
ment. It  would  allow  you  to 
use  graphics  and  multiple 
fonts,  like  your  desktop  pub- 
lishing program,  but  would  al- 
so keep  up  with  your  fastest 


typing,  like  your  text  editor. 
A  dream  word  processor? 
No,  it's  Microsoft  Word  for 
Windows. 

The  original  version  of 
Word  was  always  respected 
as  a  powerfui  program,  but 
its  quirky  menu  interface 
gave  it  something  in  com- 
mon with  WordStar:  You  ei- 


anyone  away  from  this  as- 
tounding progrann.  You'll 
need  at  least  a  12-MHz  286 
with  2MB  RAM  to  get  decent 
performance  from  the  pro- 
gram, but  that's  true  of  all  Win- 
dows applications.  You'll  al- 
so need  Windows  2. 1 1  or  lat- 
er (if  you're  not  using  version 
3.0  yet,  upgrade  now)  and 


Play  it  By  Ear  nurtures  musical  talent. 


ther  loved  it  or  hated  it. 
When  I  first  tried  Word  back 
in  early  1984,  I  was  amazed 
at  the  program's  power,  but 
the  user  interface  kept  get- 
ting in  my  way,  and  I  eventu- 
ally fell  back  to  a  simpler 
word  processor. 

After  seven  years  of  devel- 
opment, the  program  has 
grown  even  more  powerful, 
but  it  wasn't  the  new  features 
that  drew  me  back  to  it — it 
was  Microsoft's  announce- 
ment of  a  Windows  version 
of  14'ord. 

Wjrdfor  Windov/s  1 . 1  (Win- 
Word) is  an  amazing  pro- 
gram. Its  titanic  suite  of  fea- 
tures will  please  the  college 
student,  tfie  professional  writ- 
er, and  the  home  office  user 
alike.  Yet  its  simplicity  af- 
fords pleasurable  ease  of 
use  to  the  novice  computer 
user  or  the  keyboard-wary  ex- 
ecutive. In  fact,  only  the 
steep  price  and  hardware  re- 
quirements   should    keep 


about  4.5MB  of  free  hard 
disk  space  to  use  the  pro- 
gram. 

No  matter  how  many  fea- 
tures a  word  processor  has, 
the  most  important  character- 
istic is  ease  of  basic  text  ed- 
iting. WinWord  e)^ce\s  in  this 
aspect.  The  program  han- 
dles even  the  speediest  typ- 
ing with  no  discernible  lag. 
Scrolling  through  documents 
is  faster  than  I  thought  pos- 
sible in  a  graphics-based 
word  processor;  the  speed 
is  especially  surprising  on  a 
286.  You  can  highlight 
blocks  of  text  in  a  snap  with 
the  mouse;  click  once  with 
the  left  mouse  button  to  start 
selecting  text  or  twice  to  se- 
lect the  word  under  the  cur- 
sor. Use  the  right  button  for 
columnar  operations. 

All  commands  can  be  ac- 
cessed using  the  keyboard 
or  mouse.  While  I  found  the 
program  quite  usable  sans 
pointing  device  on  my  Grid 


laptop,  I  was  much  more  pro- 
ductive using  the  program 
with  a  mouse. 

A  row  of  menu  items  tops 
the  screen,  with  a  control  bar 
called  the  ribbon  and  a  ruler 
betow  that.  At  the  bottom  of 
the  screen,  a  status  bar 
keeps  you  informed  of  your 
current  page,  line,  and  col- 
umn number.  You  can  tog- 
gle the  ribbon,  ruler,  and  stat- 
us bar  off  if  you  prefer  to 
have  the  entire  screen  avail- 
able for  editing  text. 

Fonts,  point  sizes,  styles, 
tabs,  and  spacing  can  all  be 
adjusted  with  single  opera- 
tions on  the  ribbon  or  ruler. 
You'll  find  keyboard  equiva- 
lents for  all  icon  and  menu 
items,  but  there  are  so  many 
choices  in  WinWord  that 
you'll  appreciate  having  rare- 
ly used  commands  on  the 
menu  bar.  (In  fact,  there  are 
so  many  choices  that  the  in- 
cluded keyboard  template 
wouldn't  fit  above  my  PC's 
function  keys!)  If  you  do 
have  trouble  finding  a  func- 
tion, WinWord's,  comprehen- 
sive context-sensitive  online 
help  is  only  a  keypress 
away. 

WinWord  has  a  plenitude 
of  features  to  simplify  docu- 
ment creation.  The  one  I've 
used  most  is  the  glossary, 
which  lets  you  abbreviate  of- 
ten-used text.  For  instance, 
for  this  review,  1  created  a 
glossary  item  called  ww, 
standing  for  WinWord.  When- 
ever I  needed  WinWord  in 
my  text,  I  just  typed  w/wand 
hit  F3.  The  abbreviation  ex- 
panded out  to  the  full  word, 
complete  with  italics.  You 
can  also  store  longer  blocks 
of  boilerplate  text  as  glossa- 
ry items,  such  as  addresses 
or  standard  greetings. 

Style  sheets  let  you  record 
a  group  of  character  and  par- 
agraph characteristics,  as- 
sign them  a  name,  and  save 
them.  For  instance,  consider 
using  WinWord  to  create  a 

119 


REVIEWS 


newsletter.  You  could  create 
styles  for  headlines,  sub- 
heads, body  copy,  and  side- 
bar text.  When  you  create  a 
new  element,  you  can 
change  font,  spacing,  style, 
size,  and  justification  -with 
one  operation  instead  of 
five.  Style  sheets  can  be 
stored  for  use  in  other  docu- 
ments. 

Even  more  comprehen- 
sive is  Win\Aford's  document 
template  feature.  Each  tem- 
plate can  store  boiler  plate 
text,  style  sheets,  glossary 
items,  macros,  and  custom 
menu  and  key  configura- 
tions. The  20-H  sample  tem- 
plates included  with  W/n- 
Word  simplify  the  creation  of 
articles,  legal  briefs,  bro- 
chures, contracts,  disserta- 
tions, envelopes,  form  let- 
ters, mailing  labels,  memos, 
and  other  documents.  They 
also  sen/e  as  excellent  exam- 
ples for  creating  your  own 
glossary  items  and  macros. 

WinWord  has  the  most  so- 
phisticated macro  facility  I've 
seen  in  an  application  pro- 
gram. You  can  create  mac- 
ros by  recording  keypresses 
and  menu  selections,  as  in 
most  other  programs.  Howev- 
er, WinWord  a\so  has  a  built- 
in  programming  language 
called  WordBASIC  that  lets 
you  create  truly  potent  mac- 
ros. You  can  automate  even 
the  most  sophisticated  oper- 
ations. For  instance,  you 
could  create  a  macro  for  de- 
veloping a  resume;  that  mac- 
ro would  bring  up  dialog-box 
requesters  asking  for  each 
piece  of  information  individ- 
ually and  then  assemble 
them  into  a  formatted 
resume.  You'll  need  some  pro- 
gramming background  to 
take  full  advantage  of  Win- 
Word's macro  facility,  but  if 
you've  ever  used  Microsoft 
QuickBASIC,  you'll  feel  right 
at  home  using  WordBASIC. 
Unfortunately,  the  documen- 
tation for  WordBASIC  isn't  in 

120        COIVIPUTE 


the  manual — you  must  either 
print  a  77-page  document  in- 
cluded with  the  program  to 
get  basic  documentation  or 
purchase  the  heipful  Micro- 
soft Word  Tecfinical  Refer- 
ence for  Windows  and  OS/2 
for  $22.95. 

If  your  needs  are  fairly  sim- 
ple, you  can  use  WinWord 
as  a  desktop  publishing  pro- 
gram. It  supports  multiple  col- 
umns (side-by-side  or  news- 
paper-style snaking  col- 
umns) and  can  insert  pic- 
tures within  your  text.  Manu- 
al kerning  gives  you  DTP- 
style  control  over  letter  spac- 
ing. You  can  directly  load 
TIFF-format  graphics  or 
paste  them  from  the  clip- 
board. WinWord  also  sup- 
ports the  DDE  {Dynamic  Da- 
ta Exchange)  feature  of  Win- 
dows 3.0,  so  you  can  link  a 
graphic  from  another  DDE- 
capable  program  into  your 
document. 

If  you're  using  WinWord  to 
create  documents  that  will 
be  seen  and  modified  by 
more  than  one  author,  you'll 
appreciate  the  program's  red- 
lining and  annotation  fea- 
tures. Redlining  allows  you 
to  make  changes  in  a  docu- 
ment while  keeping  the  orig- 
inal text  around  for  reference 
(the  old  text  is  shown  with  a 
line  through  it).  Alternately, 
you  can  use  the  document- 
compare  feature,  which  will 
mark  any  paragraphs  that 
change  between  two  ver- 
sions of  a  document.  Anno- 
tations let  you  attach  com- 
ments or  suggestions  to  any 
block  of  text.  The  comment 
author's  initials  appear  in  the 
text,  and  the  annotation  in  a 
window  below.  You  can  lock 
documents  so  that  annota- 
tions can  be  added  but  no 
changes  can  be  made  in  the 
text. 

WinWord  has  just  about 
every  other  feature  you 
could  want  in  a  word  proces- 
sor. You  can  automate  the 


Feature-packed, 
Word  tor 
Windows  will 
satisfy 
casual  and 
professional 
writers. 


creation  of  columnar  tables, 
outlines,  indexes,  and  tables 
of  contents.  Students  and  re- 
searchers will  appreciate  the 
program's  footnote  and 
endnote  capabilities.  Win- 
WordwiW  perform  math  oper- 
ations on  groups  of  numbers 
within  your  text,  and  you  can 
type  mathematical  and  scien- 
tific equations  and  see  them 
onscreen  as  they'll  look 
when  printed.  Other  stan- 
dard functions,  such  as 
search  and  replace,  spelling 
check,  and  mail  merge, 
work  as  expected. 

Writers  will  find  the  online 
thesaurus  invaluable.  It  not 
only  provides  synonyms  for 
the  selected  word,  but  it  al- 
so gives  you  a  choice  of  def- 
initions for  the  word  in  differ- 
ent contexts  and  lists  the 
part  of  speech.  For  instance, 
different  synonyms  are  given 
for  the  word  clear,  depend- 
ing upon  v/hether  you're  us- 
ing it  to  mean  "transparent" 
or  "to  remove  obstructions 
from." 

If  you're  moving  up  to  Win- 
Vlfcirdfrom  another  word  proc- 
essor or  if  you  share  docu- 
ments with  users  of  other 
word  processors,  you'll  appre- 
ciate its  file-conversion  fea- 
tures. You  can  load  and 
save  files  in  OCA,  Display- 
Write.  MultiMate,  RTF,  Win- 
dows Write.  Word  for  DOS, 


Word  for  Macintosfi,  Word- 
Star. WordPerfect,  and 
Works  formats.  All  but  the 
most  esoteric  formatting 
codes  are  supported,  so  you 
should  lose  little  or  nothing  in 
the  translation. 

WinWord  uses  the  stan- 
dard Windows  printer  driv- 
ers, so  the  quality  of  its  out- 
put is  excellent  overall,  but  at 
the  same  time,  dependent  up- 
on your  printer.  Generally, 
your  printer's  built-in  fonts 
will  look  quite  good,  but  the 
Windows  system  fonts  will 
look  rough.  If  you  need  to 
use  fonts  not  resident  in 
your  printer,  pick  up  a  copy 
of  Adobe  Type  Manager. 
The  print-preview  function 
lets  you  view  single  or  facing 
pages  before  printing.  You 
can  choose  whether  or  not  to 
include  summary  info,  anno- 
tations, and  hidden  text  in 
your  printed  document. 

WinWord's  documenta- 
tion lives  up  to  the  high  stan- 
dards set  by  other  Microsoft 
products.  A  25-page  Getting 
Started  booklet  will  walk  you 
through  installing  the  pro- 
gram. The  126-page  Pocket 
Guide  is  a  tutorial  that  will  in- 
troduce you  to  WinV\brd's  ma- 
jor features.  The  475-page  Us- 
er Reference  tome  lists  all 
the  program's  functions  in  al- 
phabetical order,  making  it  a 
snap  to  find  any  feature,  Al- 


so  included  is  a  90-page  Print- 
er Reference  Guide  and  a 
keyboard  template.  All  the 
texts  are  extremely  well  writ- 
ten—simple enough  for  the 
novice  but  not  condescend- 
ing to  the  knowledgeable. 

I  couldn't  find  anything  to 
complain  about  in  Word  for 
Windows,  except  perhaps 
the  fact  that  the  company 
doesn't  make  a  version  for 
the  Amiga,  the  other  platform 
I  spend  much  of  my  time  us- 
ing. Once  you've  used  Win- 
Word, other  word  proces- 
sors seem  like  simple  text  ed- 
itors in  comparison.  The  only 
negative  aspects  are  the  pro- 
gram's hunger  for  memory 
and  its  sluggish  perform- 
ance on  machines  slower 
than  12  MHz.  However, 
those  are  more  the  fault  of 
Windows  than  Win  Word  and 
a  small  price  to  pay  for  ver- 
satility and  power. 

If  you're  looking  for  a  no- 
compromise  word  processor 
and  have  the  hardware  to 
handle  it.  Word  for  Windows' 
herculean  features  and  con- 
nectivity with  other  programs 
make  it  the  obvious  choice 
for  ail  your  text-editing 
needs. 

DENNY  ATKIN 


IBM  PC  and  compatibles;  1MB  RAM 
(2MB  recommended);  EGA,  VGA, 
XGA,  or  8514;  hard  drive;  80286  or 
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er  than  memorizing  a  key- 
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CLAYTON  WALNUM 

IBM  PC  and  compatibles;  3e4K  RAM 
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CALENDAR 
CREATOR  PLUS 

Many  of  today's  mainstream 
applications  are  overkill 
when  it  comes  to  doing  the 
smaller  jobs  we  want  our  sili- 
con partners  to  accomplish. 
Power  Up  has  managed  to 
create  a  product  that  not  on- 
ly fills  a  much  needed  niche 
but  can  help  you  organize 
the  daily  events  in  your  life 
without  giving  you  a  learning- 
curve  heart  attack. 

Calendar  Creator  Plus  cre- 
ates customized  calendars 
to  help  you  organize  both 
your  personal  and  business 
activities.  The  program  al-' 
lows  you  to  set  up  event  lists 
for  all  your  activities,  incorpo- 
rating them  into  the  calen- 
dar. What's  more,  the  pro- 
gram includes  clip  art  and 
gives  you  the  ability  to  high- 
light special  events  using  al- 
ternative fonts  and  shading, 
When  ready  to  print,  you  can 
preview  the  calendar,  graph- 
ics and  all.  Calendars  may 
be  printed  in  eleven  different 
formats  and  in  varying  sizes, 
from  a  giant  one-year  calen- 
dar to  miniatures  small 
enough  to  fit  in  your  pocket 
organizer.  I  found  the  docu- 
mentation, tutorial,  and 
quick  reference  card  well  writ- 
ten, concise,  and  easy  to  fol- 
low. The  installation  process 
was  user-friendly. 

Calendar  Creator  Is  a  qual- 
ity product.  The  only  disap- 
pointments are  the  lack  of 
mouse  support  and  the 
lengthy  printing  times  for  the 
calendars  themselves.  Us- 
ing a  print  spooler  alleviates 
the  latter  problem,  though 
there's  no  excuse  for  over- 
looking mice.  Despite  these 
minor  problems,  for  those  of 
you  who  need  this  type  of 
product,  I  can  recommend  it 
without  reservation.  If  you 
pay  Calendar  Creator  the 
least  attention,  you'll  always 
121 


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;n  language  simpler.  Pain- 
And  faster  than  you  ever 
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tapes  of  this  package  are  the 
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US.  State  Department  to 
train  career  diplomats. 
They  Ye  tried  and  proven 
effective.  But  it's  the  sec- 
ond 15  tapes  utilizing 
the  latest  European 
learning  techniques  that 
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'cial.  This  marriage  of  two 
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Lozanov  mv  [Ik*  basis  of  the  remarkahle 

Accelerated  Learning 
Umguage  Series. 
The  series  is  so  effective, 
we  guarantee  you'll  be 
hearing,  reading,  iinder- 


"Amcrican  managers  with 
language  skills  open  more 
doors." 

Will  Slreel  punml  EtSlmal 
Julv  35,  I98S 


slanc-iing  and  beginning  lo  converse  in  your 
new  language  in  30  days  -  or  your  money  back. 
Tliis  unique  new  system  links  the  left  side 
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right  side  of  the  brain  (music  and  art)  for 
dramatically  increased  retention  and  learning 
speed,  In  the  same  lb«    j»~^  Right 

way  you  remember 
the  words  to  a  song 
with  little  or  no  effort. 
Accelerated  Learning 

uses  Baroque  music 

to  "un-stress" 

the  learning  process. 

Boost  your  memory 
with  music. 


"(the  supcrlearnini;  method 
is)  fascinating . . .  Ilie  resulU 
are  extraordinary." 

Pitif-  ijs^TencE  Hall 
Han^  t'nisierste 


Hive  you  ever  wondered  why  you  can  re- 
member the  words  to  a  song  with  little  or  no 
conscious  effort?  Music  stimulates  right  brain 

i       ii  i     i     I  J  I  I  I  '    J     I  '       ' ^ 

A  -       loU'Cl  -  tc       Ccn.Ule  A-lou-cl  -  le.   A  -    tou-et  -ic      je  ie  ptu-me-i^ 

activity  Speech  is  a  left  brain  activity.  When  the 
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youi^jnemory  is  much 
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Iea\-cs  you  feeling  alert  and  rested. 


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I 


"I'ni  52  years  old,  and  if 
someone  had  lold  me  I 
would  have  become  articu- 
late in  a  foreign  language  In 
four  weeks,  I  would  have 
said  diey  were  wrons." 

JiBcpb  K  Kradidi 
Fofii  Motor  Cqnjpimy 


Two  language  courses  in  one. 

Utilizing  these  untapped  mental  capacities  of  your 
learning  ability  is  the  basis  of  this  unique 

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guage. These  are  the  ta]5es 
u.sed  by  the  Foreign  Service 
Institute  to  train  career  dip- 
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\'Ocabu!aiy  drills  that  take  the 
boredom  and  drudgery'  out  (jf 
learning. 

Our  'comfort'  guarantee. 

To  correctly  converse  in  a 
foreign  language  you  must 
understand  the  meanings  and 
intent  of  a  native  speaker  If 
after  30  days  of  listening  to  the  stud\'  and  memon- 
tapes  you  are  not  beginning  to  comfortably  under- 
stand, read  and  converse  in  your  new  language, 
then  return  them  for  afull  tv/und. 


"I  decided  in  concenlrale  on 
Spanish  around  196S,  and 
after  I  became  proficient  in 
1967,  my  business  with 
Spanish-speaking  countries 
increased  from  nothing  to 
over  twenty  million  dollars 
yearfy-"  .Aiidrf  Crispin 

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REVIEWS 


know  where  you  have  to  be. 

GORDON  OWENS 

IBM  PC  and  compatibles;  512K  RAM; 
CGA,  EGA,  MCGA,  VGA,  or  Hercu- 
les;  two  floppy  drives  or  a  hard  drive — 
$69.95 

POWER  UP 
2929  Campus  Dr. 
San  Mateo,  CA  94403 
(800)  851-2917  (orders) 
(415)  345-1356 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  357 

HOVERFORCE 

Lord  DarkenilL  the  slime  who 
controls  the  streets  of  Meta- 
City,  is  making  another  run, 
selling  Aftershock,  a  hideous 
bioserum.  But  this  tinne  the 
mayor  is  determined  to  termi- 
nate the  flow  of  drugs  and  re- 
claim his  city.  He's  commis- 
sioned you  to  pilot  technolo- 
gy's perfect  crime  preven- 
tion weapon — the  HoverKill 
1000. 

In  this  sleek  craft,  you'll 
sweep  through  the  city  at 
breakneck  speed  and  real- 
ize why  Accolade  calls  Hover- 
Force  the  fastest  game  you'll 
ever  play.  It'll  have  you  zip- 
ping around  corners  and  mak- 
ing 180-degree  turns,  and 
you  perform  all  these  brilliant 
maneuvers  with  a  mouse. 
Mastering  wrist  gymnastics 
may  seem  impossible  at 
first,  but  soon  you'll  wonder 
why  games  ever  used  key- 
boards. 

The  HoverKill  comes  with 
several  weapons,  shields, 
and  various  detection  de- 
vices that  keep  you  informed 
of  what  your  drug-running 
opponents  are  up  to.  But 
cleaning  the  streets  of  MetaC- 
ity  is  no  easy  task,  even  with 
the  help  of  topnotch  gadget- 
ry.  Four  mutant  criminals,  or 
Alterants,  control  different 
sections  of  the  city.  You  take 
them  on  one  by  one,  interfer- 
ing with  their  drug  runs  when- 
ever possible. 

These  masterminds  have 

124        COMPUTE 


Drug  lords  meet  their  match  when  you  pilot  the  deadly  HoverKill. 


help;  henchmen  lurk  in  the 
shadows  ready  to  attack  in 
what  scientists  call  neoster- 
oldal  rage,  a  result  of  the  Af- 
tershock that  turned  them  in- 
to mindless  automatons. 
Fighting  these  street  thugs 
makes  up  most  of  the  action 
in  HoverForce. 

At  night  the  Alterants 
move  on  to  the  next  drop. 
Waste  no  time  going  after 
them,  or  it's  back  to  face 
your  boss,  gruff  Sheriff 
Stone,  empty-handed.  Watch- 
ing the  drug  runner's  large 
vessel  go  up  in  smoke  only 
once  is  not  enough.  As  Alter- 
ants, your  foes  have  taken 
enough  Aftershock  to  sur- 
vive three  lethal  assaults.  If 
you  manage  to  beat  them 
three  times,  though,  you  sim- 
ply move  on  to  the  next  quad- 
rant of  the  city  until  finally 
you  meet  Lord  Darkenill  him- 
self. 

The  designers  graced 
HoverForce  with  clean,  swift 
graphics,  and  fair,  but  serv- 
iceable sound  effects.  Fast- 
paced,  full  of  bad  guys,  and 
insidiously  playable,  Hover- 
Force deserves  a  place  on 
the  hard  drives  of  action 
fans  everywhere.  You  need 
only  take  the  controls  of  the 


HoverKill,  and  you'll  be 
hooked.  Hunting  down  Alter- 
ants is  a  hard  habit  to  break, 

JONATHAN  BELL 

IBM  PC  and  compatibles,  640K  RAM, 
EGA  or  VGA;  mouse  or  joystick  op- 
tional. Ad  Lib.  Sound  Blaster,  Roland 
MT-32,  LAPC-1,  and  Tandy  3-voice 
sound  supported— $49.95 

Also  available  (or  Amiga— $49.95 

ACCOLADE 

550  S.  Wincriester  Blvd.,  Ste.  200 

San  Jose,  CA  95128 

(800)  245-7744 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  358 


DESIGNCAD  2-D 

Many  professional  CAD  pro- 
grams come  with  so  many 
bells  and  whistles  attached 
that  they  seem  unnavigable. 
Lightweight  or  stripped- 
down  versions  may  be  easi- 
er to  use,  but  they  usually 
lack  the  power  professional 
designers  demand.  Enter  De- 
signCAD  2-D  from  American 
Small  Business  Computers. 
With  this  CAD  package  a 
casual  user  can  turn  graph- 
ic ideas  into  finished  draw- 
ings in  minutes,  yet  profes- 
sionals will  find  that  the  pro- 
gram  can    easily   handle 


most  design  challenges.  The 
features  packed  into  De- 
s;fifnC,4Dare  especially  amaz- 
ing when  weighed  against 
the  program's  low  price. 

Easy  to  install  and  config- 
ure for  your  computer,  print- 
er, plotter,  or  digitizer,  De- 
signCAD  sets  your  units  of 
nneasure  in  either  English  or 
metric  units.  Files  can  be  di- 
rected to  any  output  device 
or  port.  If  you  use  a  mouse 
or  digitizing  tablet,  these  de- 
vices can  easily  be  included 
dunng  the  initial  installation 
process.  You  can  also  spec- 
ify aspect  ratios  of  screen  dis- 
plays and  a  preferred  back- 
ground color  for  EGA  or  VGA 
displays. 

Once  you've  installed  the 
program,  a  60-page  tutorial 
takes  you  through  the  ba- 
sics. This  manual  guides  the 
new  user  through  many  com- 
monly used  commands: 
lines,  curves,  arcs,  circles, 
boxes,  and  polygons. 

Drawing  commands  in  De- 
signCAD  use  points  as  refer- 
ences. To  draw  a  line, 
curve,  or  polygon,  for  exam- 
ple, set  a  number  of  points 
and  then  select  the  appropri- 
ate command,  A  line  ap- 
pears and  connects  the 
points. 

You  can  set  points  in  a  va- 
riety of  ways,  most  common- 
ly by  pressing  a  mouse  but- 
ton. Points  can  also  be  select- 
ed by  more  sophisticated 
methods.  Various  com- 
mands set  points  at  the  near- 
est existing  point  on  a  draw- 
ing, at  specified  ('x.yj  coordi- 
nates, or  at  a  specified  dis- 
tance and  angle  from  the 
last  point  set. 

When  drawing  perpendic- 
ular lines  for  a  blueprint,  a 
mouse  or  digitizing  tablet 
may  be  convenient,  but  not 
necessarily  the  best  choice. 
Sometimes  it's  easier  and 
more  accurate  to  position 
the  cursor  with  the  comput- 
er's arrow  keys.  Regardless 


of  which  input  device  you 
use,  it's  a  simple  matter  to 
set  a  point  on  one  line  and  in- 
voke a  command  to  create  a 
perpendicular  line,  Another 
command  adjusts  lines  to 
make  them  exactly  vertical 
or  horizontal. 

Should  you  create  several 
variations  of  a  drawing,  you 
can  display  them  simultane- 
ously on  the  screen.  A  View 
command  lets  you  open  win- 
dows to  display  any  three 
files.  You  can  also  zoom  in  to 
show  different  details  of  the 
same  drawing  if  you  prefer. 
Other  features  include  a  user- 
definable  icon  menu  that 
lets  you  customize  your 
screen  or  digitizer  tablet.  De- 
slgnCAD  supports  high-res- 
olution printing  on  dot  matrix 
and  laser  printers.  Further- 
more, it  also  has  its  own  pro- 
gramming language  that 
lets  advanced  users  create 
their  own  custom  commands 
in  a  format  similar  to  BA- 
SIC'S. Frequently  used  sym- 
bols can  be  saved  as  mac- 
ros and  inserted  with  a  click 
of  a  mouse,  fvlore  than  500 
symbols  are  supplied  with 
the  package.  Extended  mem- 
ory and  a  math  coprocessor 
are  supported  but  not  re- 
quired, and  a  360-page  man- 
ual puts  all  Des/gnCAD  com- 
mands at  your  fingertips  in 
an  easy-to-reference  alpha- 
betical listing 

Version  5  of  DesignCAD, 
which  should  be  available  by 
press  time,  will  support  even 
more  printers,  plotters,  and 
digitizers  and  offer  improved 
dimensioning  techniques, 
multiple  file  handling,  the  abil- 
ity to  run  external  programs 
from  within  DesignCAD,  and 
many  new  commands.  Own- 
ers of  the  previous  version  of 
DesignCAD  may  upgrade 
for  $50. 

Fucked  with  powerful  com- 
mands and  features,  De- 
signCAD's  power  neverthe- 
less proves  easy  for  any  us- 


mmmmmmmrm^ 


DesignCAD  2-D  delivers  high-end  blueprints  lor  a  low-end  price. 


Freakin'  Funky  Fuzzballs  could  be  the  f^ifRper  hit  of  the  year 


er  to  harness.  Its  system  of 
menus,  keyboard  com- 
mands, and  shortcut  key- 
strokes makes  the  program 
immediately  accessible.  For 
anyone  looking  for  a  power- 
ful yet  low-cost  CAD  pro- 
gram, DesignCAD  is  an  ex- 
cellent choice. 

TOM  NETSEL 

IBM  PC  and  compatibles,  640K  RAM. 
graphics  display,  hard  drive— S349 

AMERICAN  SMALL  BUSINESS  COM- 
PUTERS 

One  American  Way 
Pryor.  OK  74361 
(918)  825-4844 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  359 


FREAKIN'  FUNKY 
FUZZBALLS 

Tired  of  shooting  everything  in 
sight  or  flying  cross-country  to 
blast  some  MiGs  to  their  eter- 
nal rest?  Try  Frea/c/n'  Furyky 
Fuzzballs,  a  refreshing 
change  from  most  of  the 
games  on  the  shelves  today. 
The  idea  is  simple:  Collect 
enough  keys  or  cards  to  be 
able  to  get  out  of  the  level 
you're  in.  And  every  so  often, 
when  you  reach  a  new  level, 
you'll  find  yourself  in  a  differ- 
ent world.  If  you're  good 
enough  to  conquer  level  15, 


you  may  qualify  for  the 
Fuzzball  fHall  of  Fame, 

Along  the  way,  though, 
you'llneedtoreplenishyouren- 
ergy  by  scarfing  shakes,  bur- 
gers.sundaes, andothergood- 
iesthatappear.  Shields  andar- 
mor  can  go  far  to  further  your 
progress.  Numerous  magical 
spells,  including  spellsfor  con- 
fusion, invisibility,  blindness, 
and  enlightenment  add  varie- 

ty- 

Once  you  get  started,  you'll 
find  it  hard  to  quit  playing  this 
game.  Unique  and  enjoyable, 
Freal<in '  Funky  Fuzzballs  gets 
my  highest  recommendation. 

RICK  LEINECKER 

IBM  PC  and  compalibles,  384K  RAM 
for  CGA.  512K  RAM  (or  EGA.  640K 
RAM  for  VGA— $29.95 

SIR-TECH  SORWARE 
RO,  Box  245 
Ogdensburg,  NY  13669 
(315)393-6451 

Circle  Reader  Service  Numljer  360 


COLLEGE  COST 
EXPLORER 

High  school  students  who 
think  they  can't  afford  a  col- 
lege education  should  take 
a  look  at  College  Cost  Explor- 
er. With  it  you  create  a  list  of 
colleges  and  calculate  the 
amount  of  aid  available  from 
those  colleges  and  the 
amount  you'll  need  to  contrib- 
ute toward  your  expenses. 
The  results  could  surprise 
you. 

Details  on  the  types  of 
forms  you  need  to  complete, 
deadlines  for  requesting  aid, 
and  the  total  costs  including 
tuition,  out-of-state  fees  (if  ap- 
plicable), room  and  board, 
and  transportation  are  dis- 
played along  with  the  nanne 
of  the  college  and  its  loca- 
tion. The  introduction,  pop- 
up menu,  and  online  help 

125 


REVIEWS 


and  glossary  offer  all  the  in- 
formation  you  need  to  apply 
for  financial  aid  to  2900  col- 
leges and  universities  nation- 
wide, and  all  information  is  up- 
dated annually.  Thougfi  the 
process  of  choosing  a  col- 
lege remains  a  daunting 
one,  College  Cost  Explorer 
promises  matter-of-fact  assis- 
tance. 

JOYCE  SIDES 

IBM  PC  and  compatibles,  256K 
RAM— $59.95  (1992  edition— 
$89.95) 

Also  available  for  Apple  II  series — 
59.95  (1992  edition— S89,95) 

THE  COLLEGE  BOARD 
45  Columbus  Ave. 
New  York,  NY  10023-6992 
(212)713-8118 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  361 


AFTER  DARK/ 
INTERMISSION 

Screen  burnout  occurs 
when  a  bright,  unchanging 
image— like  the  typical  Win- 
dows screen — is  left  too 
long  on  the  monitor.  The 
bright  areas  "burn  in,"  and 
the  phosphors  gradually  die. 
Screen-saver  programs  pro- 
tect your  monitor's  display 
by  blanking  the  screen 
when  tfie  computer  is  idle  or 
when  you  move  the  cursor  to 
one  corner  of  the  screen.  But 
most  people  reaily  buy  a 
screen  saver  for  the  amusing 
animated  graphics  the  pro- 
grams display  during  blank- 
ing. 

Two  screen  savers  for  Win- 
dows, After Darkand  Intermis- 
sion, offer  similar  features — 
with  more  than  thirty  sets  of 
screen  animations  between 
the  two,  plus  password  pro- 
tection. With  mobile  clocks, 
dragon  kites,  a  choice  of 
moire  patterns,  and  a  swarm 
of  bees  and  wasps.  Intermis- 
sion has  a  slight  edge  in 
graphic  cleverness,  but  I  did 
126        COMPUTE 


After  Dark's  humorous  flying  toasters  won't  permit  screen  burnout. 


Ot  the  many  screens  that  come  with  Intermission,  this  is  perhaps 
the  most  mesmerizing. 


like  After  Dark's  flying  toast- 
ers. After  Dark's  stormy  city- 
scape  is  eye-catching,  too. 
Both  programs  offer  simple 
blanking  to  a  black  screen 
for  those  times  when  you 
don't  need  visual  distrac- 
tions, and  either  of  these  pro- 
grams will  do  a  satisfactory 
job  of  saving  your  screen 
from  the  specter  of  burnout. 

STEVEN  Ar4Z0VIN 

After  Dark 

IBM  PC  and  compatibles.  Wirydows 

3,0  or  higtier- S49.95 

BERKELEY  SYSTEMS 
170O  Shattuck  Ave. 
Berkeley.  CA  94709 
(415)  540-5535 


Intermission 

IBM  PC  and  compatibles.  Windows 

3.0  or  higher— $49.95 

ICOM  SIMULATIONS 
648  S.  Wheeling  Rd. 
Wheeling,  IL  60090 
(708)  520-4440 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  362 

PAM:  PROGRAM 

AUTOMATED 

METHOD 

Despite  the  generic  name. 
PAM  is  a  lightning-fast  rela- 
tional database  with  industri- 
al-strength capabilities. 
PAM  consists  of  an  appli- 


cation generator  and  a  run 
module.  Use  the  application 
generator  to  design  your  da- 
tabase through  its  associat- 
ed screens  and  reports.  Com- 
pile it  (with  just  a  few  simple 
keystrokes);  then  move  to 
the  run  module  to  run  it.  At 
no  time  do  you  write  a  single 
line  of  program  code.  It's  all 
done  for  you  by  the  applica- 
tion generator. 

Application  generators 
are  not  new.  The  ones  includ- 
ed with  the  big-name  data- 
bases are  definitely  more  in- 
tuitive to  use,  but  they  usual- 
ly carry  with  them  a  hefty  over- 
head that  slows  things 
down,  fills  up  your  hard  disk, 
and  empties  your  pocket- 
bool<.  This  is  where  RAM 
earns  its  market  share,  by  be- 
ing faster,  leaner,  and  less  ex- 
pensive than  other  relational 
databases  with  comparable 
power. 

A  curious  but  welcome 
throwback  to  earlier  days  of 
programming,  PAM  favors 
speed  and  program  efficien- 
cy over  glitzy,  no-brainer  in- 
terfaces. The  code  is  lean 
and  direct,  leaving  out  the 
high  overhead  associated 
with  holding  the  user's  hand 
every  step  of  the  way  to  pro- 
ductivity. 

To  learn  PAM,  set  aside  a 
good  four-  to  six-hour  block 
of  time  to  work  through  the  ex- 
cellent tutorial— 250  of  the 
manual's  355  clearly  written 
pages.  As  you  progress 
through  the  lessons,  you'll 
learn  PAM's  arcane  key- 
strokes, and  while  there's 
nothing  intuitive  about  them, 
they  are  definitely  learnable. 
And  a  word  of  advice:  Don't 
skip  the  tutorial— you'll  only 
frustrate  yourself. 

I  do  have  a  few  com- 
plaints. In  text  fields,  you 
can't  use  the  backspace 
key.  You're  stuck  with  the 
left  arrow  and  delete  combi- 
nation. A  fast  typist  or  data  en- 
try operator  hits  the  back- 


GET  THE 

OmCIAL  CLUES  TO  THE 

HOTTEST  GAMES! 


,\S'  THE  OFFICIAL  BOOK  OF 

'  KING'S 


THE  OFFICIAL  GUIDE  TO 


ConlAim  tiUl  hints  and  sttatcgiKfoi^uIving 
A'w.t's  Qntft  i-V  a«d  Iht  llli=A  i>n  Sierr^V 
CD-ROM  ikv^i>E>] 


THE  OFFICIAL  BOOK  OF 

KING'S  QUEST, 

SECOND  EBITION 

Here's  the  source  for  hints, 
tips,  and  background  for  the  newest 

adventure,  King's  Quest  V. 

This  new  volume  includes  more  clues, 

maps,  and  inside  details, 

along  with  more  ways  to  add  even 

more  fun  to  all  five  of  the 

best-selling  King's  Quest  games. 

Covers  King's  Quest  I  ■  V. 


THE  OFnClAL  GUIDE  TD 

SID  MEIER'S 

RAILROAD  TYCOON 

This  is  the  book  that  makes 
railroading  and  the  game  come  alive. 

Inside  players  will  find  interviews 

with  Sid  Meier,  the  designer  of  Railroad 

Tycoon,  along  with  facts 

on  how  the  product  was  conceived 

and  developed.  Also 

includes  formulas  the  program  uses  to 

determine  income  and  expense. 


THE  OFnCIAL  GUIDE  TD 

ROGER  WILCffS 

SPACE  ADVENTURES 

For  the  first  time. 
Space  Questers  can  learn  what  goes 

on  in  the  mind  oi  the  most 
legendary  janitor  in  the  universe.  Inside, 

you'll  find  complete  maps  for  every 
Space  Quest  scenario,  point  values  for 

every  reaction,  and  Roger's 

walk-through  to  the  finish  of  all  the  games. 

Covers  Space  Quest  I  ■  IV. 


ri 


YES! 


I I  I  want  more  hints  and  tips!  Please 

send  me  the  books  checked  below. 

□  The  Oflicial  Book  of  King's  Quest,  Second  Edition  (2452)  S12.95 
G  The  Oniclal  Guide  lo  Roger  Wllco's  Space  Adventures  (237)  S14.95 
D  The  Oflicial  Guide  lo  Sid  Meier's  Railroad  Tycoon  (2443)  S12.95 


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WITH  COMPUTE'S  GUIDE  TD  SEGA  GENESIS 


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'•  Conquer  Sega! 


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Sega  Genesis  at  S9.95each.  (2389) 

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space  key  automatically;  it 
should  be  supported  by 
PAM.  And  a  few  editing  func- 
tions don't  work  as  de- 
scribed in  the  manual. 

PAM  packs  a  rich  feature 
set.  Fields  can  be  set  to  be 
all  upper-  or  lowercase  or  to 
automatically  capitalize  the 
first  letter  of  each  word. 
Fields  can  have  required  en- 
try or  be  set  to  accept  only 
full  fields.  Automatic  field  du- 
plication, incrementing,  and 
skipping  are  supported.  Fur- 
thermore, PAM  offers  a  ma- 
trix-table function  that  allows 
spreadsheetlike  "what  if"  cal- 
culations— only  much  faster. 
PAM  imports  and  exports 
standard  Lotus  and  dBase 
files,  as  well  as  other  com- 
mon formats,  making  your  da- 
ta extremely  portable. 

After  the  initial  learning 
phase,  you  can  easily  build 
complex  databases  that  com- 
pare well  in  functionality  with 
the  well-known  database  pro- 
grams. Your  databases  may 
not  look  as  elegant,  but 
they'll  do  the  job.  And  at 
PAM's  price,  that's  afforda- 

128        COMPUTE 


PAM  puis  you  in  direct  conSrol  of  your  database  without  a  GUI. 


ble  dependability. 

RICHARD  MANN 


IBt^  PC  and  compatibles,  256K  RAM. 
hard  drive  and  floppy  drive— S65  for 
single  database  (flat  file),  S145  lor  3 
relational  databases,  S245  for  6  rela- 
tional databases,  S345  for  28  relation- 
al databases 

SOFTWARE  COMPOSERS 
4500  Newcombe  Dr. 
Piano,  TX  75093-3913 
(214)  985-8018 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  363 


IMPERIUM 

Control  of  the  Throygon  Em- 
pire rests  in  your  hands.  As 
Emperor  Amarillus,  you  ex- 
pand your  empire  from  its  pit- 
iful beginnings  to  galactic 
dominance.  Accomplish  this 
by  colonizing  productive 
worlds,  some  of  which  will, 
hopefully,  produce  nostrum, 
a  drug  that  extends  your  life 
span  and  that  of  your  com- 
patriots.   Nostrum    means 


life — humans  usually  live 
less  than  a  century,  but  you 
want  to  rule  for  1000  years. 

Competing  empires  are 
led  by  the  same  motives  as 
yours,  which  means  you 
face  a  constant  struggle. 
And  law  requires  that  an  elec- 
tion be  held  every  50  years. 
So  stay  sharp  and  don't  do 
anything  rash,  or  your  peo- 
ple will  vote  you  out,  and 
you'll  be  emperor  no  more. 

Impenum  requires  more 
than  just  military  prowess 
and  political  charm;  several 
economic  and  diplomatic  fac- 
tors must  be  taken  into  ac- 
count. Your  predecessor, 
though,  has  left  an  intelli- 
gence report  describing  the 
responsibilities  of  an  emper- 
or at  every  game  turn. 

Within  a  single  turn  you 
make  decisions  about  eco- 
nomic factors  that  will  affect 
the  wealth  of  your  empire,  as 
well  as  oversee  the  military 
and  handle  diplomatic  af- 
fairs. You  face  decisions 
about  which  planets  to  sub- 
sidize so  they  will  become 
more  productive,  which  em- 


REVIEWS 


pires  to  attack  and  wtiich  to 
befriend,  and  how  high:  or 
low  import  taxes  should  be. 

Balancing  all  those  fac- 
tors  is  daunting  at  first,  but 
you  can  delegate  day-to-day 
control  to  subordinates,  leav- 
ing you  with  the  responsibili- 
ties of  initiative  and  interven- 
tion. Do  be  careful;  some  of 
your  subordinates  are  incom- 
petent or  even  disloyal, 
though  they  may  improve 
with  awards  and  promotion. 

You'll  need  to  intervene  of- 
ten anyway  if  you  expect  to 
win  the  game.  Assuming 
your  empire  isn't  destroyed 
(or  you  don't  die  from  a  lack 
of  nostrum),  Imperium  lasts 
for  1000  years  or  until  you 
conquer  all  other  empires. 
Both  veteran  game  players 
and  novices  should  find  /m- 
per/um  addictive,  but  master- 
ing the  game  will  take  time 
and  effort  no  matter  what 
your  level  of  experience.  Ex- 
pect to  spend  several  week- 
ends mastering  the  subtle- 
ties of  dictatorship.  The  de- 
velopers help  you  out  here 
by  including  a  complete  ref- 
erence to  every  game  func- 
tion in  ttie  /mper/urr?  manual. 
Read  the  italicized  hints  and 
save  your  game  often  as  you 
try  different  strategies. 

Control  your  empire  using 
the  icon  bar  at  the  top  of  the 
screen.  From  this  bar  you 
pull  down  menus  that  pro- 
vide access  to  areas  of  con- 
cern— the  military,  economy, 
alliances,  colony  ships,  sub- 
ordinates, and  so  on.  This  gra- 
phical user  interface  is  a 
long  way  from  the  ease  of 
use  proclaimed  by  its  pro- 
grammers. In  a  world  witfi  Mi- 
crosoft Windows  and  the  Ap- 
ple fvlacintosh,  Imperium's 
GtJI  is  frustrating  by  compar- 
ison. It  requires  too  many  key- 
Strokes  and  mouse  clicks  to 
navigate,  For  example,  Impe- 
rium demands  at  least  six  key- 
strokes to  enter  the  copy  pro- 
tection information. 


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Files;  Off)  Dlfeaodon:  l)« 


:  IS  Enldci: 


BeckerToois  is  a  repiaccmant  hi  Wi/idows'  File  Manager. 


Unfortunately,  Imperium 
has  another  major  failing  in 
the  way  of  graphics.  Almost 
everything  appears  in  mono- 
chrome no  matter  what  the  vid- 
eo mode  is.  Does  gray  scale 
interest  you  when  you  have  a 
VGA  card?  Probably  not. 

I  will  give  credit,  however, 
to  the  sound  and  graphics  of 
the  title  screen.  The  color 
graphic  is  a  fair  reproduction 
of  the  package  art.  And  if 
you  have  a  sound  card  in- 
stalled, Beethoven's  Moon- 
light Sonata  comes  across 
well,  too.  Despite  its  outward 
appearances,      Imperium 


should  keep  anyone  who  ap- 
preciates a  challenge  addict- 
ed— especially  those  with  ga- 
lactic ambitions. 


„0NATHAN  BELL 


IBM  PC  and  compatibles.  512K  RAM 
{640K  for  Tandy),  CGA.  EGA,  VGA, 
Tandy  16-color,  or  Hercules;  sup- 
ports Ad  Lib,  Sound  Blaster,  and  Ro- 
land MT-32  sound  cards:  mouse  op- 
tonal— $39.95 

Also  available  for  Amiga — $39.95 

ELECTRONIC  ARTS 
1620  Gateway  Dr 
San  Mateo.  CA  94404 
(BOO)  245-4525 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  364 


BECKERTOOLS 
FOR  WINDOWS 

Some  computing  enthusi- 
asts regard  Windows  3.0 
with  near  reverence.  Yet  re- 
cent converts  have  been 
quick  to  point  out  that  Wir)- 
dows'  File  Manager  leaves 
much  to  be  desired.  Sure, 
you  get  conventional  file  and 
disk  management  options 
such  as  Copy,  Move,  Delete, 
Rename,  Find  flies.  Edit  text, 
and  Format.  Windows'  File 
Manager  also  launches  appli- 
cations. However,  it  handles 
these  tasks  in  a  less  than  el- 
egant way.  Even  fviicrosoft  ac- 
knowledges there  is  room  for 
improvement  in  File  Manag- 
er, and  the  company  prom- 
ises a  performance  upgrade 
by  year's  end,  when  Win- 
dows 3.1  ships. 

If  you  seek  file  manager  re- 
lief now,  don't  despair.  Beck- 
erToois may  be  just  what  you 
need  to  overcome  File  Man- 
ager's deficiencies.  Once  in- 
stalled, it  offers  dozens  of 
disk  and  file  options  previous- 
ly unavailable  under  Win- 
dows. For  example,  you  can 
undelete  files  and  directo- 
ries, read  disks  in  a  single 
pass  to  make  multiple  cop- 
ies, do  selective  backups, 
pack  (compress)  or  unpack 
specified  files  and  directo- 
ries, find  duplicate  files,  cre- 
ate a  bootable  System  disk, 
and  much  more.  Advanced 
users  will  appreciate  the  spe- 
cialized hexadecimal,  sec- 
tor, and  file  editors.  Any  one 
of  these  options  may  be  se- 
lected with  the  point  and 
click  of  a  mouse. 

Setup  is  a  breeze!  Becker- 
Tools  installs  directly  from 
File  Manager  or  from  the 
DOS  prompt.  The  applica- 
tion {along  with  an  aestheti- 
cally pleasing  screen  saver 
called  STARUTE)can  be  con- 
figured to  load  automatically 
with  Windows.  Alternatively, 

129 


REVIEWS 


you  can  disable  automatic 
loading  and  elect  to  have 
BeckerTools  and  its  screen 
saver  sidekick  added  to  the 
Accessories  or  Applications 
group. 

The  first  time  you  view  the 
BeckerTools  window,  you 
may  experience  a  bit  of  a 
shock.  The  screen  could  be 
a  clip  from  a  movie  titled 
Nightmare  on  Icon  Street.  I 
counted  65  3-D  icons,  not  in- 
cluding scroll  arrows  and  box- 
es and  title  bar  boxes.  Luck- 
ily, whenever  the  cursor 
points  at  an  icon  in  the  Tool- 
box area,  the  program  dis- 
plays a  brief  description  of 
that  icon  at  the  bottom  of  the 
screen.  For  example,  aim  at 
the  icon  labeled  Info,  and 
the  bottom  line  message 
reads  Display  directory  infor- 
mation. Zero  in  on  the  icon 
with  the  large  red  X,  and  the 
bottom  line  discloses  Unse- 
lect  all  files  and  directories. 
Toolbox  options  can  also  be 
invoked  from  pull-down  men- 
us (on  the  menu  bar)  or  with 
keyboard  command  short- 
cuts. 

The  BeckerTools  work- 
space is  divided  into  five  ar- 
eas. The  icon-rich  Toolbox 
and  two  windows  depicting 
the  contents  of  Source  and 
Target  directories  occupy 
most  of  the  screen.  A  menu 
bar  and  two  additional  infor- 
mation fields  (one  showing 
current  source  and  target 
paths,  the  other  displaying  us- 
er and  system  messages  or 
icon  descriptions)  complete 
the  lineup.  Unfortunately,  the 
information  line  at  the  bottom 
of  the  screen  displays  icon 
descriptions  only  for  the  Tool- 
box area  and  not  for  the 
Source  or  Target  window  ar- 
eas. 

Spend  some  time  with 
BeckerTools,  and  navigating 
the  workspace  presents  little 
difficulty.  To  complete  a 
task,  you  must  first  set  up  a 
Source  directory.  This  tells 

130        COMPUTE 


the  program  where  to  iook 
when  you  click  on  a  Toolbox 
icon. 

Next,  establish  a  target 
path.  Then  select  an  icon 
(tool)  from  the  Toolbox  win- 
dow. In  this  way,  copying  or 
moving  files  and  directories 
from  one  disk  or  directory  to 
another  is  reduced  to  a  few 
simple  mouse  clicks.  Sever- 
al tools — such  as  Delete  or 
Rename  files  and  directo- 
ries. Create  new  subdirecto- 
ry. Display  directory  tree, 
and  Format  disks — do  not  re- 
quire a  target  path. 

BeckerTools  offers  online 
help  and  a  choice  of  three 
menu  displays.  To  minimize 
confusion,  new  users  should 
select  Beginner.  Seasoned 
veterans  of  Wlndows-^pe  in- 
terfaces may  opt  for  the  In- 
termediate feature  level  or  Ad- 
vanced (complete)  menu  dis- 
play. Whatever  option  you 
run  Seckerroo/s  under,  it  per- 
forms flawlessly 

You  can  launch  an  appli- 
cation by  selecting  execut- 
able programs  from  a 
Source  directory,  double- 
clicking  to  pull  up  the  Quick 
menu,  and  pressing 
Launch.  Alternatively,  you 
can  launch  as  many  as  ten 
applications  via  a  user-con- 
figurable list  available  from 
the  Applications  menu. 

As  a  substitute  for  Win- 
dows'File  Manager,  Becker- 
Tools offers  a  host  of  differ- 
ent utilities  designed  to 
please  novices  as  well  as 
techies.  And  since  it  does 
such  a  nice  job  of  launching 
applications,  you  might  even 
prefer  it  to  Windows'  Pro- 
gram Manager. 

CAROL  HOL2BERG 


IBM  AT  and  compatibles,  Windows 
S.Oor  later— $129,95 

ABACUS 

5370  52nd  SI.  SE 

Grand  Rapids.  Ml  49512 

(800)451-4319 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  355 


WILL  BUILDER 

Few  of  us  welcome  the  pros- 
pect of  writing  a  will,  and  of- 
ten the  document  remains  un- 
written until  it's  too  late. 
While  the  average  person 
probably  has  some  hazy  ide- 
as about  what's  required,  the 
specifics  are  a  problem,  and 
people  are  reluctant  to  pay 
a  lawyer  for  advice. 

Will  Builder  offers  a  partial 
solution.  It  educates,  and  it 
helps  you  prepare  docu- 
ments that  you  might  other- 
wise dread  preparing,  wheth- 
er for  their  supposed  com- 
plexity or  simply  for  their 
gloomy  nature.  A  240-page 
companion  book  (prepared 
by  two  attorneys)  explains 
the  processes  of  creating  a 
will,  assigning  power  of  attor- 
ney appointing  an  executor, 
and  writing  a  living  will.  You'll 
find  further  explanations  in 
the  program  itself,  along 
with  a  rather  lengthy  index. 
The  user  interface  looks  and 
feels  a  tad  primitive,  devoid 
of  many  of  the  visual  niceties 
we've  grown  to  expect  from 
software.  But  since  the  pro- 
gram doesn't  have  a  lot  of 
functional  depth,  it  doesn't 
require  much  operational 
assistance. 

Will  Builder  meets  its  sim- 
ple goal  and  takes  you  by 
the  hand  to  walk  you 
through  the  process  of  pre- 
paring legal  documents  relat- 
ing to  the  handling  of  your  es- 
tate after  your  death.  You 
can  also  put  together  docu- 
ments that  give  other  individ- 
uals named  by  you  power  to 
make  certain  decisions  on 
your  behalf  about  your  right 
to  die,  should  you  become  se- 
riously incapacitated. 

Will  Builder  will  tailor  your 
documents  to  meet  the  re- 
quirements of  your  home 
state's  laws  and  is  equipped 
to  address  many  of  the  spe- 
cial issues  that  have  be- 
come commonplace  in  late 


twentieth-century  life  in  this 
country — personal  affairs 
like  single  parenthood,  step- 
parenting,  and  unmarried 
life  partners. 

Done  simply,  this  process 
requires  answers  to  a  few  per- 
sonal questions,  explains 
what  the  law  requires  in  each 
matter  discussed,  and  then 
fills  in  the  blanks  of  prede- 
signed legal  documents 
based  on  your  responses.  As 
with  any  software  of  this  sort, 
a  disclaimer  in  the  program 
suggests  that  you  employ  le- 
gal assistance  if  you're  at  all 
unsure  of  anything. 

If  you  follow  the  steps  care- 
fully and  thoroughly  read 
and  understand  the  refer- 
ence material  provided, 
your  documents  should  be 
as  legal  as  those  prepared 
by  an  attorney,  though  the 
software  designers  cannot 
take  responsibility  for  any 
problems  that  might  arise. 
You  are,  in  essence,  choos- 
ing to  act  as  your  own  law- 
yer by  taking  on  this  task  us- 
ing a  software  package 
alone. 

Costing  less  than  the  av- 
erage 60-minute  period  in  an 
attorney's  office.  Will  Builder 
contains  more  general  infor- 
mation than  a  lawyer  could 
easily  dispense  in  that  period 
of  time.  For  savings  like  that, 
many  of  us  would  brave  the 
difficulty  of  completing  our 
own  legal  paperwork.  If  you're 
willing  to  be  your  own  coun- 
sel in  one  area  of  your  legal 
affairs  or  if  you  want  to  be  bet- 
ter informed  when  you  do  con- 
sult an  attorney,  Will  Builder's 
worth  a  look. 

KATHY  YAKAL 


IBM  PC  and  compatibles,  512K  RAM, 
hard  disk— $59.95 

SYBAR 

2021  Challenger  Dr. 
Alameda,  CA  94501 
(800)  227-2346 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  366 


ABC 
FLOWCHARTER 

I've  never  liked  flow  charts 
and  never  thought  I  would. 
Roykore's  ABC  Flowcharter, 
however,  has  changed  my 
mind.  Drawing  upon  Micro- 
soft Windows'  advanced 
graphics  capabilities,  the  at- 
tractive and  flexible  ABC 
Flowcharter  receives  high 
marks  for  functionality. 

Programmers  use  flow 
charts  to  chart  out  a  pro- 
gram before  writing  a  single 
line  of  code.  A  visual  repre- 
sentation of  a  program,  flow 
charts  depict  certain  actions 
with  different  shapes;  a  call 
for  user  input  might  appear 
in  the  form  of  a  blue  circular 
box,  while  a  message  written 
to  the  screen  may  be  placed 
in  a  rectangular  red  box. 
Lines  denote  relationships  be- 
tween the  shapes,  and  text 
within  a  shape  further  ex- 
plains that  shape's  function. 

If  you  find  traditional  out- 
liners  too  confining.  ABC 
Flowcharter  provides  a  gra- 
phical approach  to  structur- 
ing information;  you  just 
move  shapes  around  with 
your  mouse  naturally  and  eas- 
ily. Programmers  will  find 
that  this  program  has  the  pow- 
er to  accommodate  today's 
complex  software  design — 
a  single  chart  can  hold  over 
32,000  shapes.  Office  man- 
agers can  use  ABC  Flowchar- 
ferto  map  office  procedures; 
because  it's  essentially  a 
minihypertext  system,  ABC 
Flowcharter  could  assist  in 
creating  training  exercises. 

Say  you  want  to  create  a 
simple  training  exercise.  You 
create  a  series  of  shapes  sig- 
nifying the  various  steps 
needed  to  perform  a  task, 
along  with  iines  denoting  the 
logical  procedure.  Highlight- 
ed by  red  shapes,  important 
tasks  stand  out;  explanatory 
notes,    denoted    by    blue 


shapes,  don't  clamor  for  at- 
tention but  wait  in  the  wings. 
(Since  ABC  Flowcharter 
ships  with  30  different 
shapes  built  in,  you 
shouldn't  run  out  soon.) 

But  wait — you  realize  that 
the  user  could  take  an  entire- 
ly different  course  of  action, 
and  you  don't  want  to  clutter 
up  your  main  chart  with  the 
new  branch.  No  problem:  Be- 
cause ABC  Flowcharter  of- 
fers a  three-dimensional  ef- 
fect, you  can  link  the  main 
chart  with  a  subchart.  You 
can  uncover  any  shape 
linked  to  another  shape  with 
a  simple  click  of  the  mouse 
button,  Subcharts  can  link  to 
subcharts,  and  thanks  to  a 
command  that  shows  every 
aspect  of  your  flow  chart, 
you'll  never  lose  track  of 
your  logic. 

However,  a  few  inconven- 
iences and  inconsistencies 
in  ABC  Flowcharter w'\\\  drive 
you  to  distraction,  especially 
if  you  work  exclusively  within 
the  Windows  environment. 
Written  for  earlier  versions  of 
the  program,  the  manual 
doesn't  reflect  the  changes 
made  for  Windows  3.0.  The 
failure  to  place  the  Close  com- 
mand under  the  File  menu 
may  have  been  technically 
correct,  but  its  omission  still 
annoys  the  end  user. 

Otherwise  well  presented, 
ABC  Flowcharter  should 
serve  the  needs  of  virtually 
any  computer  user.  Flow 
charts  can  prove  more  use- 
ful than  you  might  expect, 
and  if  you  need  to  create 
lots  of  them,  you'll  want  to 
use  ABC  Flowcharter 

KEVIN  REICHARD 


IBM  PC  AT  and  compatibles,  Win- 
dows 2,11  or  later,  hard  disk  with  at 
east  1MB  of  free  space— $295 

ROYKORE 

22 IS  Filbert  St. 

San  Francisco.  CA  94123-3413 

(415)  563-9175 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  367 


*Enter  ^notfier  WoHd 
Wfiere  the  Living 

art 
Among  the  ^exv 

CRUSADERS 

of  the 
DARK  SAVANT 

The  Sequel  to  Bane  of  the  Cosmic  Forge 

CIrcte  Reader  Servtce  Number  192 


FINAL  ORBIT 

Fans  of  vertically  scrolling 
shoot-'em-ups  will  enjoy  Fi- 
nal Orbit,  even  though  its 
plot  is  a  variation  on  an  old 
theme.  Stranded  on  a  plan- 
et, you  must  battle  your  way 
through  nine  levels  to  its 
core  and  destroy  it  before  gar- 
bage bags  and  other  intelli- 
gent waste  destroy  you. 

Due  to  awkward  steering 
controls  and  the  sheer  num- 
ber of  adversaries,  the 
game  is  difficult  even  in  its 
easiest  mode.  Fortunately, 


you  can  pick  up  more  pow- 
erful weapons  and  play  simul- 
taneously with  a  friend.  The 
graphics  and  animation  are 
stupendous — this  one  will 
put  you  in  orbit. 

LEN  POGGIALI 

IBM  PC  and  connpatibles,  640K  RAM, 
CGA.  EGA,  VGA,  or  Tandy  16-color; 
joystick  optional,  supports  Ad  Lib 
sound  card— S34.9S 

INNERPRISE  SOFTWARE 
128  Cockeysville  Rd. 
Hunt  Valley,  MD  21030 
(301)785-2266 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  368 


Final  Orbit  pits  you  against  a  planetlul  of  animate  garbage. 


131 


IMPORTANT  NOTICE 

FOR 

COMPUTE  DISK 

SUBSCRIBERS 

COMPUTE  Offers  two  different  disk 
products  for  PC  readers:  tlie 
SharePak  disk  and  PC  Disk.  SharePak 
is  monthly  and  ties  a  subscription 
price  of  $59.95  for  5Va-incti  disks 
and  $64.95  for  3'/2-inch  disks.  A 
subscription  to  SharePak  does  not 
include  a  subscription  to  ttie  maga- 
zine. PC  Disk  appears  in  even- 
numbered  monttis  and  tias  a  sub- 
scription price  of  $49.95,  wtiichi 
includes  a  subscription  to  ttie  PC 
edition  of  COMPUTE.  You  can  sub- 
scribe to  eithier  disk  or  to  botti,  but  a 
subscription  to  one  does  not  include 
a  subscription  to  ttie  ottier. 


REVIEWS 


aBERGENIC 
RANGER 

A  massive,  state-of-the-art  ar- 
cade game,  Cybergenic 
Ranger  consumes  almost 
five  megabytes  of  disk 
space,  requires  at  least  a  12- 
MHz  macfiine  with  EGA  vid- 
eo (VGA  is  infinitely  better), 
and  deserves  every  bit  of  the 
pampering  you  give  it. 


The  story  is  lovingly  de- 
tailed in  a  professionally  pro- 
duced comic  book,  a  comic 
that  also  serves  as  copy  pro- 
tection (you  have  to  enter  a 
randomly  chosen  word  from 
the  book  before  you  can 
start).  While  the  plot  is  pulp, 
the  graphics  are  (dare  I  say 
it?)  out  of  this  world.  If  you've 
been  waiting  for  a  game 
whose  makers  had  the  guts 
to  leave  CGA  behind,  wait 


Cybergenic  Ranger's  striking  advanced  graphics  bring  arcade 
standards  home  to  your  PC. 

132        COMPUTE 


no  longer.  Cybergenic  Rang- 
er features  scrolling  back- 
grounds for  a  true  arcade  3- 
D  effect.  As  you  move  the 
character  through  scenery, 
objects  further  back  move 
more  slowly  than  objects 
near  the  front.  Digitized  mu- 
sic plays  remarkably  well 
through  the  PC  speaker, 
though  of  course  the  Sound 
Blaster  and  Ad  Lib  boards  of- 
fer superior  sound. 

While  there  are  some  ho- 
hum  space  battles,  interest- 
ing travel  on  the  surface  of 
seven  different  moons  and 
planets  more  than  compen- 
sates. Quick-moving,  256- 
color  monsters  left  me  with 
the  impression  that  I  should 
have  been  feeding  quarters 
into  my  386;  Cybergenic 
Ranger  pushes  the  machine 
to  the  limit  and  is  every  bit  as 
exciting  as  a  visit  to  your 
neighborhood  arcade. 

TOM  CAMPBELL 

IBM  PC  and  compatibles.  640K  RAM. 
EGA  or  VGA,  4.9M8  disk  space; 
Sound  Blaster  and  Ad  Lib  sound 
cards  supporled— $49.95 

{Editor's  note — Owners  of  earlier  ver- 
sions of  Cytxrgenic  Ranger  receive 
a  free  upgrade  supporting  sound 
cards  and  a  joystick.  Call  the  toll-free 
number  listed  below.) 

SYMTUS 
RO.  Box  912 
Palacios,  TX  77465 
(800)  255-2374 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  369 

STUDYWARE  FOR 
THE  GRE 

Some  friends  of  mine  took 
the  Graduate  Record  Exam 
when  they  were  fresh  out  of 
undergraduate  school. 
Smart  move.  Not  only  do  you 
start  to  lose  test-taking  skills 
shortly  after  graduation,  but 
that  mass  of  knowledge  that 
you  built  up  for  a  diploma 
starts  to  fade  away  pretty 
quickly,  too.  Depending  on 
what  kind  of  higher  degree 


you're  after,  those  GRE 
scores  can  be  quite  impor- 
tant. And  whenever  you  take 
the  test,  some  studying  may 
be  in  order.  Based  on  actual 
current  exams.  StudyWare 
for  the  GRE  allows  your  prep- 
aration time  to  be  focused 
and  well  used.  If  you're  com- 
fortable using  the  computer, 
then  SiudyWare  may  be  an 
appealing  study  tutor 

The  program  is  broken 
down  into  two  main  areas  of 
preparation:  the  StudyWare 
test  preparations  and 
course  reviews,  and  an  elec- 
tronic version  of  Cliffs  GRE 
Preparation  Guide.  (Remem- 
ber Cliffs  Wofes? Those  inor- 
dinately helpful  little  booklets 
with  yellow  and  black 
stripes?) 

You  can  take  the  Stu- 
dyWare tests  in  either  Test 
mode  (which  operates  like  a 
real  examination,  only  allow- 
ing you  to  answer  questions) 
or  Tutor  mode  (which  gives 
you  immediate  feedback,  tell- 
ing you  whether  you  an- 
swered a  question  correctly 
and  supplying  the  right  one 
if  you  didn't,  along  with  a 
brief  explanation). 

In  many  cases,  Stu- 
dyWare can  supply  addition- 
al information  before  you  an- 
swer a  question,  to  help  you 
make  the  correct  choice.  If 
you're  in  Tutor  mode  and 
don't  know  the  definition  of  a 
word,  you  can  look  it  up  in 
the  built-in  glossary.  In  math- 
ematical areas,  you  can  pe- 
ruse online  charts  and 
graphs  as  study  aids. 

Available  tests  gauge  and 
sharpen  your  quantitative,  ver- 
bal, and  analytical  abilities. 
In  the  verbal  area,  for  exam- 
ple, choose  to  test  yourself 
in  areas  like  sentence  com- 
pletion, analogies,  and  read- 
ing comprehension.  Quanti- 
tative exams  analyze  your 
abilities  in  standard  mathe- 
matical subjects. 

StudyWare  for  itie  GRE 


comes  with  a  paper  copy 
of  Cliffs  GRE  Preparation 
Guide;  it  is  awkward  to  use 
this  portion  of  thie  program — 
you  must  read  tfie  test  ques- 
tions out  of  tliat  document 
and  answer  ttnem  on  tfie  elec- 
tronic answer  form  witfiin  tfie 
software. 

You  can  operate  ttie  pro- 


IBW  PC  and  compatibles.  256K 
RAM— $49.95 

Also  available  for  Apple  II— S49.95 
and  Macinlosh— S49.95 

STUDYWARE 

4760  Murphy  Canyon  Rd.,  Ste.  A 

San  Diego.  CA  92123 

(619)495-0190 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  370 


Through  dash  and  daring,  the  lead  in  the  Space  Ace  space  opera 
saves  the  day  and  gets  the  girl 


gram  ttirougti  eitlier  tfie 
mouse  or  tfie  keyboard,  and 
tfie  user  interface  is  ele- 
mentary enougfi  tfiat  little 
use  of  the  accompanying 
brief  manuals  is  required.  Stu- 
dyWare  monitors  your  pro- 
gress and  reports  on  your  lev- 
el of  success  at  the  end  of 
each  section. 

Gloomy  projections  regard- 
ing the  job  market  for  this 
year'sgraduatingcoliegesen- 
iors  may  prompt  many  of 
them  to  remain  in  academia 
instead  of  job-hunting  imme- 
diately, in  the  hopes  that  a 
higher  degree  may  help 
them  nab  a  better  position  in 
the  real  world.  If  you're  one 
of  these  seniors  or  if  you're 
trying  to  return  to  school  af- 
ter being  out  in  the  work 
force  for  a  few  years,  invest 
in  StudyWare  for  the  GRE 
and  give  yourself  a  decided 
edge. 

KATHY  YAKAL 


SPACE  ACE 

In  this  interactive  cartoon 
loosely  derived  from  the  pop- 
ular Dragon's  Lair  series,  you 
take  on  the  persona  of 
Space  Ace  as  he  struggles 
to  stop  Commander  Borf 
fromtransformingEarth'spop- 
ulation  into  infants.  Space 
Ace  has  already  been  mildly 
affected  by  Borf's  infanto  ray 
and  so  keeps  metamorphos- 
ing into  a  weakling  kid 
named  Dexter.  Reverse  ag- 
ing sure  doesn't  make  his  mis- 
sion any  easier! 

Before  you  reach  the  end 
of  your  quest,  you'll  ma- 
neuver Space  Ace/Dexter 
through  dozens  of  colorful 
scenes.  The  animation  is 
smooth  and  cartoonlike,  and 
the  digitized  sounds,  voices, 
and  music  are  clear  and 
crisp.  {A  sound  card  is  re- 
quired.) Dragon's  Lair  fans 
will  not  want  to  miss  this 


^nd  the  visions 

Appeared 

as  they  never  had 

before 

CRUSADERS 

of  the 
DARK  SAVANT 

Now  with  256-color  VGA  Graphics 

circle  Ftsodtr  Service  Number  192 


engaging  space  epic. 

CLAYTON  WALr^JUM 

IBM  PC  and  compatibles:  640K  RAM; 
CGA,  EGA,  VGA,  or  Tandy  16-colar; 
floppy  or  hard  drive:  supports  Ad  Lib 
and  Sound  Blaster  sound  cards; 
ioystick  oplional— S59.95 

Also  available  for  Amiga— $59.95,  Ap- 
ple llGS-$59.95,  Atari  ST— $5995, 
and  Macintosh-"S59-95 

READYSOFT 
30WertheimCt.,  Unit  2 
Richmond  Hill,  ON 
Canada  L4B  189 
(416)  731-4175 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  371 


ARACHNOPHOBIA 

On  a  dark  and  bug-infested 
night,  deep  in  the  steamy  jun- 
gles of  South  America,  an 
arachnid  steals  passage  on 
a  plane  headed  for  the 
United  States.  Immediately 
upon  arrival,  it  mates  with 
harmless  domestic  spiders. 
Hordes  of  oversize,  poison- 
ous offspring  result,  ready  to 
take  on  the  world, 

The  deadly  new  species  re- 
produces at  an  alarming 
rate.  One  town  after  another 
falls  prey  to  the  infestation.  Bit- 


ten humans  drop  like  flies.  On- 
ly Delbert  McClintock,  ace  ex- 
terminator, and  his  Spider  In- 
festation Control  Team  can 
eradicate  the  poisonous 
threat.  Loosely  based  on  the 
plot  of  a  movie  by  the  same 
title,  Disney's  Arachnopho- 
bia  weaves  a  web  of  arcade 
action  that's  sure  to  keep 
you  busy  for  several  hours. 

As  Delbert,  you  maneuver 
your  truck  through  seven  spi- 
der-infested towns  on  life- 
threatening  arachnid  search- 
and-destroy  missions.  Your 
goal:  Locate  and  terminate 
the  Queen,  mother  of  all  spi- 
ders. Only  when  the  Queen 
has  been  throttled  can  you 
proceed  to  the  next  town. 
But  every  town  has  several 
buildings  to  explore,  and 
each  building  has  loads  of 
surprises — mostly  of  the 
eight-legged  variety  Obliter- 
ate all  the  bugs  in  a  building 
and  save  defenseless  hu- 
man victims  along  the  way  to 
earn  extra  bug  bombs.  Ter- 
minate every  Queen  on  the 
home  front,  and  you  can  clob- 
ber critters  in  the  heart  of  the 
Amazon  rain  forest. 

Realistic  bug-crunching 

133 


REVIEWS 


sound  effects,  digitized  hu- 
man speecfi,  and  an  eerie 
musical  score  really  give  you 
thie  creeps  wfnen  you  plug  Dis- 
ney's inexpensive  ($34.95) 
Sound  Source  periptieral  in- 
to your  computer's  parallel 
port.  Don't  go  on  a  bug  raid 
without  it!  Arachnophobia's 
animation  is  so  well  de- 
signed and  the  sound  ef- 
fects so  authentic  that  you'll 
be  watching  where  you 
plant  your  feet  long  after  you 
shut  down  your  computer, 

Easy  to  play,  Arachnopho- 
bia  nevertheless  proves  dif- 
ficult to  win.  While  carrying 
out  your  mission,  you  must 
avoid  the  menacing  little  mon- 
sters, each  intent  on  biting 
you.  Use  your  Toxi-fvlax  insec- 
ticide to  fumigate  every  spi- 
der and  egg  sac.  Domestic 
Soldiers  succumb  easily  to  a 
single  spray  of  the  bug  gun. 
They  also  squish  underfoot  if 
you  stomp  them. 

Heavy-footed  boot  tech- 
niques won't  work  on  Queen 
spiders  and  South  American 
beasties.  These  bugs  re- 
quire massive  doses  of  Toxi- 
Max  or  the  firepower  availa- 
ble from  an  aerosol  flame- 
thrower. Be  prepared  to 
meet  your  maker  if  you  run 
out  of  Toxi-fvlax  at  an  inoppor- 
tune moment.  Delbert's  com- 
pany vehicle  has  a  never- 
ending  supply,  but  when  you 
leave  a  house  before  locat- 
ing the  Queen,  the  building 
repopulates  with  spiders! 
You'll  need  that  unlimited  in- 
secticide. 

Delbert  can  sustain  up  to 
four  Soldier  spider  bites  be- 
iore  dying.  He  can  suffer  on- 
ly two  bites  from  a  Queen 
and  merely  a  single  chomp 
from  the  macho  South  Amer- 
ican menace.  Restore  his 
health  with  a  quick  shot  of  an- 
tivenin,  if  you  can  locate  the 
first-aid  kit.  Pummel  an  egg 
sac,  and  the  directional  ar- 
row on  the  Bugometer  com- 
pass will  point  you  in  the  di- 


rection of  the  Queen. 

Follow  Delbert's  tech- 
niques, and  you  will  live  long 
and  profit.  Slip  up  once  too 
often,  and  your  days  as  an 
Arachnid  Abatement  Techni- 
cian are  numbered.  Arachno- 
phobia  may  not  offer  many  in- 
tellectual challenges,  but  ac- 
tion games  don't  necessarily 


EGA,  MCGA,  VGA,  or  Tandy  16-col- 
or:  joyslick  optional— $49,95 

Also  available  for  Amiga — 49.95  and 
Commodore  64/128— S29.95 

DISNEY  SOFTWARE 
SOO  S.  Buena  Vista  St. 
Burbank,  CA  91521 
{818)841-3326 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  372 


Spiders  make  themselves  at  home  in  Arachnophobia. 


Automate  your  card  file  with  YourWay. 


require  tedious  puzzles. 
Grab  your  Toxi-ivlax  and  go 
on  a  bug  hunt! 

CAROL  HOLZBERG 


IBI\/1  PC  and  compatibles.  512K  RAM 
(640K  with  Sound  Source),  CGA, 


YOURWAY 

Though  YourWay  is  often  re- 
viewed as  a  personal  informa- 
tion manager  (PIM),  Prisma 
Software  prefers  to  call  it  a 
Personal  Productivity  Worksta- 


tion. What's  that?  It  turns  out 
to  be  a  contact  manage- 
ment-based program  that 
handles  schedules,  phones, 
to-do  lists,  and  basic  written 
communication  centered  on 
the  personal  information  da- 
tabase that's  the  hub  of  an  of- 
fice worker's  day. 

Viewed  as  traditional  PIM, 
YourWay  has  shortcomings. 
Once  you  understand  its  ob- 
jectives, however,  you'll  find 
that  it's  right  on  target. 

YourWay  is  designed  to  au- 
tomate  an  office  worker's 
card  file  of  contacts,  with  au- 
tomatic dialing,  scheduling, 
letter  writing,  and  a  historical 
record  of  all  contacts. 

It  all  revolves  around  a  sim- 
ple card  file.  {As  a  Windows 
3,0  program,  YourWay  pre- 
sents the  cards  graphically 
onscreen.)  Simply  label  the 
fields  you  want  on  each 
card;  thereafter  the  field 
names  appear  on  every 
card.  In  the  word  processor, 
you  can  design  letter  tem- 
plates that  pull  address  data 
from  the  cards,  or  you  can 
simply  write  a  letter  while  the 
addressee's  card  is  on  top  of 
the  pile.  In  either  case,  the  let- 
ter will  be  logged  into  the 
card's  note  field,  which 
could  be  thought  of  as  a 
large  piece  of  paper  folded 
and  stapled  to  the  back  of 
the  index  card. 

To  call  someone,  pull  up 
that  card  and  have  the  com- 
puter dial  lor  you.  As  you 
talk,  add  directly  to  the  note 
field.  The  call  and  certain  ba- 
sic information  about  it  will 
be  logged  into  the  note  field 
automatically. 

To  schedule  time,  pull  up 
the  calendar;  put  the  card 
for  the  person  involved  on 
top  of  the  pile.  Enter  the 
event  on  the  calendar,  and 
an  automatic  notation  ap- 
pears in  the  card's  note 
space. 

Use  the  to-do  list— present- 
ed as  a  drawing  of  a  clip- 


134 


COMPUTE 


board  with  four  lists  in  priori- 
ty order — to  track  tasks  witti- 
out  specific  deadlines. 
Again,  entries  post  to  ttie 
note  field  of  the  top  card. 

Launch  applications  direct- 
ly from  YourWay  by  putting 
the  associated  filename  on 
an  index  card.  If  you  need  a 
certain  spreadsheet  when 
you  talk  to  the  boss  on  the 
phone,  fof  example,  put  the 
filename  on  his  or  her  card. 
Click  on  it,  and  VourM/ay  sum- 
mons the  spreadsheet. 

For  any  serious  word  proc- 
essing, you'll  want  to  launch 
your  regular  word  processor. 
VourlVay  automatically  pass- 
es your  text  to  the  Windows 
clipboard;  just  paste  it  into 
your  mainline  word  proces- 
sor and  continue.  While  less 
versatile  than  \NrHe  (the  pro- 
gram that  comes  with  Wm- 


vidual  cards  and  type  extra- 
neous material  anywhere  on 
a  card-  While  useful,  this  fea- 
ture sometimes  proves  dis- 
concerting. 

YourWay  provides  tightly 
integrated  contact  manage- 
ment and  history,  with  basic 
functions  that  are  easily  aug- 
mented by  fulf-function  appli- 
cations. While  this  clever  pro- 
gram isn't  exactly  my  way,  it 
could  easily  be  yours. 

RICHARD  0  MANN 

IBM  PC  and  compalibtes,  hard  disk 
wilti  2MB  available,  286  or  higher  mi- 
croprocessor, Windows  3.0  or  high- 
er, mouse — $199 

PRISMA  SOFTWARE 

2301  Clay  Sl- 

Cedar  Falls,  lA  50613-9990 

(800)  747-0319 

(319)  266-7141 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  373 


Miami's  no  placa  to  go  on  vacation  in  Fountain  of  Dreams. 


dows),  YourWay's  word  proc- 
essor possesses  a  surprising- 
ly robust  spelling  checker 
and  thesaurus  that  might 
prove  useful. 

Some  may  find  the  index 
cards  themselves  confusing. 
The  field  names  are  there, 
but  they're  not  like  those  in 
any  other  database  you've 
used  before.  You  can  enter 
as  much  text  as  you'd  fike  in 
each  field — they're  all  free- 
form  text  fields.  You  can 
even  delete  fields  from  indi- 


FOUNTAIN  OF 
DREAMS 

Mutant  rats?  Homicidal  beach- 
combers? Killer  clowns?  In 
the  nuclear  war-ravaged  en- 
virons of  fvliami  that  serve  as 
the  setting  for  Fountain  of 
Dreams,  radiation  levels 
may  be  high,  but  the  silli- 
ness indicator  jumps  off  the 
meter. 

The  plot  calls  for  you  to  lo- 
cate the  source  of  the  pre- 


/  fiave  died 

of  untoCd guiCt 

and  horror f 

but  my  secret  is  safe— 

for  now 

CRUSADERS 

of  the 
DARK  SAVANT 

As  rich  a  tale  as  ever  fold 


Clrele  Reader  Service  Number  1 92 


clous  Dream  Water,  the  only 
known  curative  for  the  horri- 
ble mutations  threatening  to 
overwhelm  the  remaining 
pockets  of  "civilization."  Fac- 
tional strife  among  the  differ- 
ent groups  vying  for  control 
of  Miami  adds  a  bit  of  in- 
trigue to  the  story  line,  but 
this  is  an  adventure  where 
brawn  rather  than  brains  will 
carry  the  day.  Combat  oc- 
curs frequently,  whether 
you're  spoiling  for  a  fight  or 
not.  And  if  one  of  the  bizarre 
beasties  or  bad  guys 
doesn't  get  you,  the  tedium 
of  resolving  the  interminable 
battles  might. 

Not  for  the  gun-shy,  Foun- 
tain of  Dreams  is  for  players 
who  prefer  to  approach  the 
unknown  with  one  eye  glued 
to  the  sights  of  an  M-16  as- 
sault rifle. 

JEFF  SEIKEN 

IBM  PC  and  compalibles,  512K  RAM, 
EGA,  MCGA,  or  VGA— S49.95 

ELECTRONIC  ARTS 
1820  Gateway  Dr. 
San  Mateo,  CA  94404 
(8m)  245-4525 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  374 


NEGOTIATOR  PRO 

Scads  of  books,  audiotapes, 
and  training  sessions  have 
been  dedicated  to  the  deli- 
cate art  of  negotiating.  Now 
there's  a  software  program 
that  promises  to  provide  ex- 
pert advice  molded  to  fit 
your  negotiating  style  and, 
moreover,  to  propose  strate- 
gies that  will  help  you  work 
effectively  to  reach  a  mutual- 
ly agreeable  solution. 

Negotiator  Pro  is  based 
on  15  leading  books,  includ- 
ing the  best-selling  Getting 
to  Yes,  and  draws  on  such  no- 
table experts  as  Roger 
Dawson,  author  of  several 
helpful  audiotape  programs 
and  books.  One  of  the  pro- 
gram's strengths  is  its  hy- 
pertext system,  an  online 
help  tool  that  lets  you  see  def- 
initions of  highlighted  terms. 
If  another  term  in  the  defini- 
tion is  highlighted,  you  can 
read  that  explanation  as 
well.  Hypertext  allows  you  to 
perform  research  by  free  as- 
sociation, a  very  pleasant  ex- 
perience that  stimulates  cre- 
ative thinking.  You'll  find  re- 
lated terms,  definitions,  strat- 
135 


REVIEWS 


egies,  and  tips  that  you 
might  not  otherwise  unearth 
using  a  printed  text.  You'll 
find  the  information  when 
you  need  it  so  you  can  use 
it  for  maximum  effect. 

First,  categorize  your  nego- 
tiating style.  Negotiator  Pro 
asks  ten  questions  concern- 
ing your  style  of  time  manage- 
ment, use  of  threats,  meth- 
ods of  revealing  information, 
and  likelihood  of  giving  con- 
cessions, The  results  lell  you 
whether  you  are  cooperative 
or  competitive.  You  repeat 
the  process  for  your  oppo- 
nent. 

How  well  does  this  system 
work?  I  left  one  question 
blank  because  1  couldn't  de- 
cide how  to  answer  Howev- 
er, when  Negotiator  Pro 
read  my  other  answers,  it  sug- 


gested how  1  would  have  an- 
swered that  question — a 
nice  touch  that  makes  me  be- 
lieve that  you  can  get  a  fairly 
good  idea  of  personality 
styles  based  on  just  a  few 
questions.  However,  I  had  lim- 
ited information  for  my  oppo- 
nent and  can't  believe  that 
Negotiator  Pro  could  have 
made  an  intelligent  guess  on 
answers  that  I  really  wasn't 
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some  knowledge  of  your  op- 
ponent, this  tool  could  pro- 
vide further  useful  insights. 
The  computer  selects  the 
most  effective  negotiating 
style  and  displays  sugges- 
tions on  the  screen.  For  in- 
stance, I  have  an  amiable 
style,  as  does  my  opponent. 
The  computer  advised  this 
strategy:  Be  somewhat  like 


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them:  be  friendly  and  infor- 
mal. Ask  personal  questions. 
Be  nonthreatening,  consis- 
tent, and  professional.  Don't 
push  too  hard,  but  gently 
use  objective  criteria  and 
time  limits  to  help  the  amia- 
ble reach  closure.  Be  reassur- 
ing and  stress  the  benefits  to 
alt  the  people  that  would 
flow  if  your  interests  are  ful- 
filled. Show  how  everyone 
benefits  in  a  win-win  out- 
come. This  paragraph  con- 
tains a  lot  of  practical  ad- 
vice. 

The  next  step  involves  the 
creation  of  an  action  plan 
and  briefing  book  to  guide 
your  team  through  the  nego- 
tiating process.  The  program 
presents  an  outline  of  35  stag- 
es of  negotiating,  such  as 
opening  gambits,  midpoint 
tactics,  and  approaches  to 
closing.  After  you  select  a  top- 
ic, the  computer  takes  you  to 
a  small  word  processor, 
which  allows  you  type  your 
ideas,  goals,  and  strategies. 

If  you're  strapped  for 
time.  Negotiator  Pro  v/Wl  pre- 
sent you  with  the  top  ten  out- 
line topics.  Whichever  meth- 
od you  choose,  you  can  also 
import  text  from  other  pro- 
grams, so  if  you  assign  part 
of  the  plan  to  others,  you 
won't  fnave  to  reenter  the 
text — merely  integrate  their 
work  with  yours.  When 
you've  finished,  you  can 
print  the  document  and  pre- 
sent il  to  each  member  of 
your  team.  The  publisher 
stresses  this  feature  be- 
cause if  participants  enter 
the  negotiating  sessions  in  lat- 
ter stages,  they  will  have  the 
benefit  of  reading  this  mas- 
ter plan  to  gain  insight  into 
the  other  side's  negotiating 
character  and  your  side's 
goals  and  strategies. 

While  clear,  the  manual 
could  be  better  organized.  It 
includes  35  pages  of  defini- 
tions and  negotiating  tips, 
but  not  all  the  hypertext 


terms  are  listed.  Why  were 
some  terms  and  strategies  in- 
cluded but  not  others?  What 
was  the  distinction?  The  man- 
ual does  contain  a  wealth  of 
information,  but  it  is  present- 
ed in  alphabetical  order,  rath- 
er than  categorized  by  strat- 
egies or  skills,  In  short,  the 
material  is  interesting,  but 
not  as  valuable  as  it  would 
be  with  more  logical  organi- 
zation. 

Each  time  you  use  the  pro- 
gram, you  must  specify  the 
appropriate  batch  file  to 
load  your  computer's  mon- 
itor type.  This  is  a  minor  flaw, 
but  a  dated  process.  You  al- 
so must  unload  all  TSRs  as 
the  program  uses  all  640K 
memory  I  failed  to  do  this  in- 
itially and  found  myself  wait- 
ing literally  15  minutes  as  the 
computer  displayed  a  collect- 
ing memo/'y  message  on  the 
screen,  which  led  me  to  be- 
lieve the  computer  was  work- 
ing. In  reality,  the  computer 
was  hung  up,  A  toll  call  to 
the  company  for  support  re- 
sulted in  a  phone  message 
and  the  promise  of  a  return 
call  the  next  day  The  cour- 
teous chief  programmer 
called  with  the  answer  the 
next  morning.  Despite  the 
flaws  with  the  manual  and  in- 
stallation, Negotiator  Pro  w\\ 
help  you  organize  your 
thoughts,  brainstorm,  and 
gain  insight  into  your  own 
needs  and  wants  as  well  as 
those  of  your  opponents. 
That's  a  pretty  good  compro- 
mise. 

DANIEL  JANAL 

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COMPUTE  Clauliled  Is  a  law-cos)  way  to  tell  over 

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orssrflce. 

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Terms:  Prepayment  is  requirBif .  We  accept  chedts,  n^oney 
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number  in  iheir  ads  must  supply  permanent  address  and 
telephone  number.  Orders  will  not  be  acknowledged.  Ad  will 
appear  In  next  available  issue  after  receipt. 

Clotlng:  First  of  the  second  month  preceding  cover  itate 
(e.g.  October  issue  closes  August  1 .) 

CLASSIFIED  DISPLAY  RATES 

Classilied  display  ads  measure  2W  wide  and  are  priced 
according  lo  height,  r  =  $275: 1 W  -  MOO;  r  =  $525. 

HOW  TO  ORDER 

To  place  an  ad,  call  Sharon  Steintemper.  Classified 
Manager.  COMPUTE,  1965  Broadway.  New  York.  NY 
10023-6965.  at  212-724-0911,  FAX  212-724-0825. 


143 


CONVERSATIONS 


Peter  Scisco 


GAMES  ARE  US 

COMPUTE:  What's  in  store  for 
computer  games  in  the  next 
three  years? 

Trip  Hawkins:  1  think  what 
tlie  consumer  cares  about  is 
ttie  audiovisual  realism  of  the 
experience,  There's  a  big 
leap  from  8-bit  to  16-bit.  On 
the  Sega  Genesis  and  the  Su- 
per Nintendo,  tfie  grapfiics 
look  as  good  as  EGA  graphics 
and  even  better,  because  the 
animation  is  very  good. 

C:  Will  we  see  the  same 
kind  of  explosion  we  saw  with 
the  8-bit  NES  happening  with 
these  16-bit  systems? 

Hawkins:  Yes,  in  fact  it's  hap- 
pening right  now.  It's  related 
to  two  factors.  The  smaller  fac- 
tor ..  .  is  the  growth  of  the 
home  office  market.  A  lot  of 
consumers  who  are  home  of- 


At  the  Consumer 

Eiectronjcs 

Show  COMPUTE'S 

Edilor  In  Chief 

Peter  Scisco  caught 

up  with  Trip 

Hawldns,  ctialrman 

of  Electronic 

Alls,  for  some  gamy 

conversation. 


fice  workers  are  going  to  buy 
an  IBfvl  compatible,  and  once 
they  make  ttie  decision  to  get 
one,  they  can  do  a  lot  of  differ- 
ent things  with  it,  including 
entertainment.  Videogames 
have  a  far  more  dramatic 
growth  pattern  because  of  the 
price  point  of  the  hardware. 
Plus,  you've  got  30  million 
households  that  were  brought 
up  on  the  8-bit  videogame  sys- 
tems. You  only  need  a  fraction 
of  those  to  switch  over  to  the 
16-bit  [market]  that's  already 
as  big  as  the  IBfvl  floppy  disk 
market. 

C;  If  16-bit  videogame  sys- 
tems become  that  successful, 
will  developers  abandon  the 
personal  computer? 

Hawkins:  A  high-end  flight 
simulator  like  Chuck  Yeager's 
Air  Combat — you  can't  do 
that  kind  of  a  product  on  a  vid- 
eogame system.  It  needs  to 
have  bitmapped  graphics  and 
a  lot  of  memory  space.  You 
can't  do  really  fast  polygon  ren- 
dering, which  is  the  technique 
used  in  flight  simulators.  We're 
still  going  to  bring  some  of  our 
simulations  technology  down 
to  the  videogames,  but  we 
can't  do  it  at  the  same  level. 
Other  than  that,  if  you  have  a 
good  game,  you're  going  to 
put  it  on  all  of  the  machines. 
C:  Define  multimedia  and 
its  role  in  entertainment. 

Hawkins:   Here's  what   it 
means  to  me.  It  has  to  be  in- 
teractive, If  it's  not  inter- 
active, then  why  both- 
er? There  are  all  kinds 
of  digital  technology 
being  brought  to  au- 
dio and  video,  which 
is  fine.  But  to  call  it 
multimedia  and  say 
it's  a  new  business — 
well,      what's      new 
about  it?  It  has  to  be  in- 
teractive to  really  be 
new. 
C:  Define  interactive. 
Hawkins:  It's  to  be  con- 
trasted with  passive,  if  1 
am  watching  television 


and  the  information  is  all  one 
way,  the  oniy  way  I  interact 
with  my  TV  is  by  pressing  but- 
tons on  my  remote. 

C:  How  is  that  different 
from  an  arcade  game?  Just 
pressing  a  fire  button — / 
wouldn't  call  that  interactive. 

Hawkins:  There's  a  lot  more 
going  on  than  that,  though  the 
control  may  be  simplistic.  The 
thing  about  the  TV  remote  is 
that's  a  real  strong  indication 
of  people's  desire  to  interact. 
Television  is  passive,  and  the 
passivity  is  brain  numbing.  Peo- 
ple need  to  be  stimulated  so 
they're  constantly  changing 
what's  on  the  screen. 

0:  I  see  arcade  games  as 
a  linear  experience. 

Hawkins:  That  may  be  a 
function  of  the  environment 
more  than  anything  else.  In  a 
coin-op  situation,  you're  trying 
to  get  a  couple  more  quarters 
out  of  somebody  every  couple 
of  minutes.  So  that  influences 
the  way  the  games  are  de- 
signed. But  there's  nothing 
intrinsic  about  the  technology 
that  makes  it  have  to  be  that 
way. 

C:  Can  entertainment  soft- 
ware play  a  role  in  education? 

Hawkins:  Absolutely.  The 
brain  research  that's  been 
done  in  the  U.S.  over  the  last 
20  years  has  proven  that  inter- 
action is  the  single  best  way  to 
increase  your  intelligence. 
There's  no  question  in  my  mind 
that  a  kid  who  spends  a  iot  of 
time  playing  videogames  will 
have  superior  skills  in  pattern 
recognition.  This  is  a  cultural 
problem.  Parents  look  at  a  kid 
playing  a  videogame,  and  he's 
staring  at  the  screen  almost 
like  in  a  trance — and  it  scares 
them.  They  don't  realize  that 
that's  good.  He's  intense. 
There's  a  lot  of  brain  activity 
going  on.  If  parents  see  their 
kid  lounging  around  watching 
the  TV.  they  don't  realize  that 
he's  not  being  stimulated, 
that  there's  not  as  much  brain 
activity  going  on.  □ 


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Schools 

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D  PC  Systems  Analysis 
n  PC  Software  Engineering  Using  C 
D  Computer  Programming 


Other  computer  career  training: 
n  Microcomputer  Servicing 
n  Desktop  Publishing  and  Design 
□  Word  Processing  Home  Business 


Name 

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CiD,- 


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pnlyNRI 
ives  you  the 
of  real- 
world  training 
you  need 
tor  success 

3.  Begin  a  high-paying  career  —  even  a 
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programnning 

Now,  with  NRI  training  in  Computer  Program- 
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out  an  astonishing  range  of  business,  profes- 
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NRI  gives  you  hands-on  programming  experi- 
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NRI  gives  you  everything  you  need  to 
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Your  NRI  lessons  first  guide  you  step  by  step 
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techniques  used  every  day  by  successful  micro 
and  mainframe  programmers.  Then  the  fun 
really  begins. 

With  your  personal  NRI  instructor  always 
available  to  help,  you  use  your  computer  and 
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document  programs  in  BASIC,  P;iscal,  C,  anj 
COBOL.  Rounding  out  your  training,  you  use 
your  modem — also  included  in  your  course — 
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students,  even  download  programs  through 
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PRONET. 

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NRI  training — geared  to  the  real  world 

Now  you  can  enter  today's  rapid-growth  computer  fields  with  tine  practical  skills,  hands-on 
experience,  and  priceless  confidence  you  need  for  success. 

NRl's  three  exciting  new  computer  courses  (one  described  here,  two  on  the  other  side) 
prepare  you  for  success  in  today's  expanding  computer  world  by  giving  you 
first-hand  experience  with  today's  most  in-demand  computing  tools: 

►NRI's  PC  Systems  Analysis  course  includes  a  powerful 
AT-compatible  computer  system  that  features  a  full  megabyte 
of  RAM,  high-resolution  monitor,  modem,  and  1.2  meg  floppy 
drive.  Plus  you  work  with  three  popular  software  packages  — 
MS-DOS,  GW-BASIC,  and  Microsoft  Works. 

^The  centerpiece  of  NRl's  PC  Software 
Engineering  Using  C  course  is  aLso  an 
AT-compatible  system,  this  time 
featuring  a  VGA  color  monitor,  30  meg 
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^  Choose 
NRl's  Computer 
Progranuning 

course  and  you'll  get 
hands-on  program- 
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you  work  with  an 
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School  of 
Electronics 


McGraw-Hill  Continuing  Education  Center 
4401  Connecticut  Avenue,  NW 
Washington,  DC  20078-3543 


|„|,|||,Mll..ll..lllMi...llMl.1lll..lllllll»l<l 


Train  at  home  the  NRI  way. .  .with  step- 
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Send  for  your  free  NRI  catalog  today! 
If  the  card  is  missing,  wtite  to  NRI  Schools, 
McGraw-Hill  Continuing  Education  Center, 
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DC  20008. 


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CIrcl*  Rudsr  Sarvic*  Number  106 


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